In today's climate, now seems like the perfect time for The Hockey News' first Inspiration Issue. We've unearthed feel-good stories from around the hockey world, plus features on Leon Draisaitl, John Carlson and many more.

The Inspiration Issue 2020

The Hockey News has been providing the most comprehensive coverage of the world of hockey since 1947. THN is published 18 times a year, including 14 regular issues and four special issues – such as Future Watch, Draft Preview, Yearbook, the #1 selling hockey annual in North America.

The Hockey News May 25, 2020 - Free Agency Preview

<div class="byline">BY SAL BARRY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_cards1_0132/668188-1-eng-US/buzz_cards1_0132.jpg" title="buzz_cards1_013" width="599" height="839"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>U</span>NLESS YOU&rsquo;VE BEEN </b>living under a rock, you&rsquo;ve heard the tale of David Ayres by now. To quickly recap: the facilities manager and Zamboni driver was pressed into service as an emergency backup goalie for the visiting Carolina Hurricanes in a Feb. 22 game against the Toronto Maple Leafs. He stopped eight of 10 shots he faced and made history as the first &lsquo;EBUG&rsquo; to be credited with a win. Here&rsquo;s the new part of the story: Upper Deck commemorated Ayres&rsquo; performance on a card in its Game Dated Moments set, which was available for purchase in early March via its online E-Pack platform. And if you missed out on that, Ayres will also have a &ldquo;Young Guns&rdquo; rookie card, found randomly inserted in boxes of the 2019-20 SP Authentic set, which was due out in May.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_cards2_0142/668181-1-eng-US/buzz_cards2_0142.jpg" title="buzz_cards2_014" width="603" height="844"></div><p><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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BUZZ

In the CARDS

<div class="byline">BY RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="next_liu" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/next_liu2/669817-1-eng-US/next_liu2.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>CAMPUS ROLE MODELS</b></p><p>Mia McLeod and the LIU Sharks started a women&rsquo;s program this season and after a slow start captured the conference title.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(ALAN J SCHAEFER/LIU ATHLETICS)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>Y</span>OU WOULD THINK </b>that college hockey writers would be ecstatic every time a new school decided to start a Div. I program. After all, it&rsquo;s not something that happens every year. But a curious phenomenon occurred this spring when Long Island University announced it would be adding men&rsquo;s hockey to its department: a lot of pundits turned into haters.</p><p>Sure, the LIU Sharks will be attempting to put together a team for 2020-21 in breakneck time, having just months to find a coaching staff, players and opponents, but it&rsquo;s hard to believe the school went into this blind. In fact, I know it didn&rsquo;t, because athletic director Bill Martinov had already had discussions with former Notre Dame coaches Dave Poulin and Ric Schafer about his venture. Martinov spent more than a decade in the Fighting Irish athletics department and, yes, he knows Rudy.</p><p>So why has the tone online been so cynical and negative about the Sharks? Could it be that no one got to leak the news about the program before the announcement? Could it be that a lot of the punditry was convinced Navy would be the next NCAA school to go D1 and the Sharks crashed their prediction?</p><p>Few of these folks believe the idea will work on Long Island because of funding. The past two schools to go D1 in men&rsquo;s hockey did so thanks to massive donations: Penn State got more than $100 million from Terry Pegula when the Nittany Lions arrived on the scene in 2010, while Arizona State received $32 million from a group of private donors in 2014, spurring a Sun Devils program that went live a couple years later.</p><p>LIU didn&rsquo;t get a big nest egg. The school just has leadership that wanted to expand its athletics. The Sharks actually started a women&rsquo;s program this season and, though that squad got off to a rough start, the LIU women won their conference title, upsetting top-seeded Sacred Heart along the way. Women&rsquo;s coach Rob Morgan gave the school a template to work with in searching for a men&rsquo;s bench boss. &ldquo;Coach Morgan came in on a short timeline and did a great job&hellip;not bad, winning a conference championship your first year,&rdquo; Martinov said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re using that game plan to help here. We want to move quickly but get the right person.&rdquo;</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">THE TEAM DOESN&rsquo;T HAVE TO BE A WORLD-BEATER TO BE A SUCCESS. <b>IT&rsquo;S IN A HOCKEY-MAD BOROUGH THAT HOUSED AN NHL DYNASTY</b></blockquote><p>There have been reports that some candidates already took themselves out of the running because they didn&rsquo;t think LIU&rsquo;s budget was big enough. And hey, the numbers aren&rsquo;t public, so I can&rsquo;t say either way.</p><p>But what a lot of folks are missing here is that the LIU men&rsquo;s team doesn&rsquo;t have to be a world-beater to be a success. Think about it: a hockey-mad borough that housed one of the best Stanley Cup dynasties of all-time now has its own college team to cheer for &ndash; both men&rsquo;s and women&rsquo;s squads. Charlie McAvoy and Adam Fox both had to go up to Boston to play their collegiate hockey; maybe the next young stars from Long Island decide to skate for their home squad and build their own legacies as Sharks.</p><p>And even if LIU&rsquo;s men are more chum than predators in their first few campaigns, what does it matter to outsiders? You&rsquo;re adding 18 scholarships to the school, which means 18 more chances for someone to get a college education while also playing the sport they love. College basketball&rsquo;s March Madness works because we love to hear about the Cinderella schools taking on Duke or Kansas and sometimes winning. Heck, one of the most memorable moments in college hockey was Holy Cross&rsquo; shocking upset of Minnesota in the first round of the 2006 Frozen Four.</p><p>Maybe one day LIU is that school. The Sharks will need a conference first and, while Atlantic Hockey seems like the best fit geographically and skill-wise, there are no sure things (especially if Navy does put together a program). Like Arizona State, the Sharks will start off as an independent.</p><p>Scheduling next year will be difficult, because many teams already have full dance cards. But even if the Sharks have to play fewer games (Martinov is hoping for 20; college teams typically play about twice that) and maybe do so with non-D1 competition thrown in (which Arizona State also did its first season), they&rsquo;ll still be on the ice, rocking light-blue-and-yellow sweaters.</p><p>I&rsquo;m pulling for it all to work out. Fins up, Sharks. Fins up.</p><span class="image-inline"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/twitterlogo_0219/669824-1-eng-US/twitterlogo_0212.jpg" title="twitterlogo_021" width="42" height="34"></span><p><a datastyle href="https://twitter.com/THNRYANKENNEDY"><b>@THNRYANKENNEDY</b></a><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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The Straight Edge

The dark horses of Long Island

<div class="byline">BY MATT LARKIN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0013-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-0181/668150-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(OVECHKIN: MATTHEW MANOR/HHOF IMAGES; MAKAR: ISAIAH J. DOWNING-USA TODAY SPORTS; CROSBY: PAUL STINSA/HHOF IMAGES; MASON: MATTHEW EMMONS-USA TODAY SPORTS; PHANEUF: ANDY DEVLIN/HHOF IMAGES; MATTHEWS: ED MULHOLLAND-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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ROOKIE SENSATION-O-METER

<div class="byline">BY RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="draisaitlop_044" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/draisaitlop_0442/668856-1-eng-US/draisaitlop_0442.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(ANDY DEVLIN/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>N</span>OTHING WILL GET YOU </b>in the good books of Edmonton Oilers fans faster than going after someone from the Calgary Flames. Leon Draisaitl certainly gave the fans what they wanted prior to the NHL All-Star Game when he proclaimed he didn&rsquo;t even want to be on the ice at the same time as Matthew Tkachuk, even though both were on the Pacific Division team. Tkachuk, of course, had a running feud going with Oilers heavy Zack Kassian, who caught a two-game suspension for attacking Tkachuk after the Flames agitator had taken several runs at him.</p><p>In the early going, it seemed as though Draisaitl would get his wish, as his 3-on-3 all-star linemates were Connor McDavid and relatively nicer Flames star Mark Giordano, while Tkachuk played with Vancouver&rsquo;s Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes. But an early line change resulted in Tkachuk and Draisaitl on the ice together, where they completed a devastating give-and-go for a goal. Staying in character, the two didn&rsquo;t even look at each other to celebrate, though after the game they said they were just having fun.</p><blockquote class="pullQuote"><b>HE HAS DEVELOPED INTO ONE OF THE BEST PLAYERS IN THE WORLD</b><br>&ndash; Connor McDavid</blockquote><p>As amusing as it all was, Draisaitl&rsquo;s 2019-20 campaign will be remembered for a lot of other highlights. For instance, he was well on his way to his first Art Ross Trophy, which he practically locked up in February when McDavid went down with a quadricep injury. In six games without the Oilers captain, Draisaitl put up 12 points in his buddy&rsquo;s absence. When the season was put on pause for the COVID-19 pandemic, he held a 13-point lead over McDavid. &ldquo;You see his confidence has grown and grown as he has played,&rdquo; McDavid said. &ldquo;And he has developed into one of the best players in the world.&rdquo;</p><p>Edmonton has seen many heroes pass through its city over the years, and Draisaitl has now joined McDavid as the current flagbearers. Growing up in Cologne, Germany, Draisaitl couldn&rsquo;t watch NHL games on TV, so he relied on YouTube for clips of Pavel Datsyuk and Maxim Afinogenov to quench his thirst.</p><p>The German junior league couldn&rsquo;t hold Draisaitl, as the 15-year-old went off for 192 points in just 29 games for Mannheim&rsquo;s under-16 squad, so after one more season in Germany, he left for North America, where the big boys played. Draisaitl went to Prince Albert, Sask., where the WHL&rsquo;s Raiders made him the No. 2 overall pick in the 2012 import draft (behind future St. Louis Blues center Ivan Barbashev). It was a match made in heaven, even if there was some culture shock. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a different country, you&rsquo;re young, and you just follow your dream,&rdquo; Draisaitl said. &ldquo;It was something I felt I had to do to become a better player and give myself a shot at playing in the NHL. Culture shock? Absolutely. Especially coming from a decently sized city in Germany to a tiny little town in Saskatchewan. But they took great care of me there and made it feel like home right away. I&rsquo;m very happy I did that.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/draisaitl22/668842-1-eng-US/draisaitl22.jpg" title="draisaitl2" width="2233" height="1898"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>WAR OF WORDS</b></p><p>Draisaitl staked his ground in the &lsquo;Battle of Alberta&rsquo; with an all-star statement about the rival Flames.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(GERRY THOMAS/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Not only was Draisaitl an impact player for the Raiders, but he made sure to help out in the community, something he has continued to do in Edmonton. &ldquo;You just want to give something back to them, right?&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;They take you in and support you, so if there&rsquo;s a chance for us as players to give back, you want to jump on it. It&rsquo;s something I like to do, and it&rsquo;s the right thing to do.&rdquo;</p><p>Draisaitl wasn&rsquo;t an instant sensation with the Oilers and came up during a turbulent time in the organization. He was infamously held out of the 2015 world juniors by then-GM Craig MacTavish, only to get sent back to the WHL days after the tournament ended &ndash; and Germany getting relegated to a lower division. Draisaitl did get the opportunity to play on a big stage later that season when he was traded from Prince Albert to Kelowna, where he helped the Rockets make it all the way to the Memorial Cup final before ultimately falling in overtime to the OHL&rsquo;s Oshawa Generals.</p><p>It didn&rsquo;t take too much longer for Draisaitl to become a dangerous NHLer, however. By his third big-league season in 2016-17 he was nearing point-per-game territory, and last season he hit 50 goals and reached the 100-point plateau for the first time. &ldquo;You just grow as a player,&rdquo; Draisaitl said. &ldquo;When you&rsquo;re 18 or 19 years old, most guys aren&rsquo;t established, and you&rsquo;re not at the top of your game. You try to get better, you work on things you&rsquo;re not good at and some years you take a bigger jump than other years. But all those jumps combined, they&rsquo;re all very important, and they make you into the player that you are today.&rdquo;</p><p>There aren&rsquo;t many NHL players who can claim to be better than Draisaitl today, and that will be proven when he very likely takes home the Hart Trophy for league MVP on top of the Art Ross.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/draisaitl42/668835-1-eng-US/draisaitl42.jpg" title="draisaitl4" width="1175" height="1287"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>THEN & NOW</b></p><p>Draisaitl went from Germany to the WHL in 2012. He has switched uniforms a couple times, but he&rsquo;s always been in the west.</p><span class="photo-credit">(TOP: MARISSA BAECKER/GETTY IMAGES; BOTTOM: DAVE SANDFORD/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/draisaitl32/668828-1-eng-US/draisaitl32.jpg" title="draisaitl3" width="1502" height="1346"></div><p>Now, you can make the argument that Draisaitl and McDavid cancel each other out in terms of excellence and that a singular talent such as Colorado&rsquo;s Nathan MacKinnon or the Rangers&rsquo; Artemi Panarin fit the criterion better. But Draisaitl was there for the Oilers when McDavid went down and helped keep them on track with sublime performances. That sounds pretty valuable, does it not?</p><p>Some pundits have also called into question Draisaitl&rsquo;s defensive play, but even detractors have admitted he&rsquo;s gotten better as the season has gone on. The presence of new coach Dave Tippett has been great in that respect. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s been awesome,&rdquo; Draisaitl said. &ldquo;He gave us a clear structure in how he wants us to play, and we&rsquo;ve all bought in to that. He has helped us all a lot. The whole coaching staff does a great job of preparing us for games and getting us the information we need.&rdquo;</p><p>Thanks in large part to Draisaitl, the Oilers were also looking at their first playoff berth since 2017, something the city has been fiending for ever since. In the City of Champions, you have to at least get invited to the dance, and the Oilers have been left without a corsage too many times over the past two decades. Having said that, Draisaitl never got impatient. &ldquo;No, we&rsquo;re going in the right direction,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The past couple of years haven&rsquo;t been perfect, but sometimes you have to go through that to be successful. We&rsquo;re going in the right direction, we&rsquo;re going on the right path. Hopefully we can get better game by game, year by year.&rdquo;</p><p>In the process, Draisaitl has proven that he is not merely McDavid&rsquo;s linemate. In fact, the two weren&rsquo;t even playing on the same line anymore, with Draisaitl lining up with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Kailer Yamamoto. Having his own line hasn&rsquo;t diminished his offensive prowess. &ldquo;Everybody sees his goals and production, but his vision is elite,&rdquo; Giordano said. &ldquo;He can really pass the puck, and he sees the ice really well.&rdquo;</p><p>So far, Western Canada has agreed with Draisaitl. From Prince Albert to Kelowna to Edmonton, he has found success on the ice. Off the ice he&rsquo;s gotten into country music, something you don&rsquo;t hear very often back in Germany. And while a lot of country songs are great for drowning your sorrows, Draisaitl has given Oilers fans something to cheer for: the future that just never seemed to come together for the team is all of a sudden looking like a very promising present.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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LEON DRAISAITL

Go West Young Man

<div class="byline">BY JASON KAY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/jk_2020_4_c_0902/667887-1-eng-US/jk_2020_4_c_0902.jpg" title="jk_2020_4_c_090" width="691" height="997"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(STEVEN ELLIS/THE HOCKEY NEWS)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>I</span>F YOU WERE BORN</b> before the NHL&rsquo;s first lockout, you&rsquo;re old enough to remember the second and probably desensitized enough to not care much about the third. It was No. 2 that wrought the most anguish, a pain more acute for those whose livelihoods depended on NHL hockey being played. The entire 2004-05 season was vaporized, myriad jobs were lost, and the Stanley Cup was homeless for the first time since the 1919 pandemic.</p><p>Still, while there was no silverware awarded, there was a silver lining. As the league and the union fought over how to divide $2.1 billion, a cadre of players, coaches and GMs assembled to brainstorm ways to improve the game. Brendan Shanahan, who was a member of the Detroit Red Wings at the time, was at the heart of the think tank, which came to be known as, wait for it&hellip;the Shanahan Summit. When regular-season games resumed in October of 2005, the panel&rsquo;s top recommendations were implemented: a crackdown on obstruction, a two-minute minor assessed to defenders who shot the puck over the glass, slightly slimmer goalie equipment and the game-deciding, oh-so-exciting shootout.</p><p>The rule changes were largely applauded. Most notably, the majority of puck-heads were eager to see the shootout in action and the elimination of tie games. While not universally loved, the shootout increased pulses across hockey nations when it was employed in international competitions. It created national heroes (Peter Forsberg, 1994 Olympics), national scapegoats (Marc Crawford, 1998 Olympics) and national debates even as they were unnatural conclusions to the ultimate team game.</p><p>Unfortunately, something got lost in translation when the shootout was taken from the world stage and applied to NHL arenas. The stakes weren&rsquo;t as high. Teams weren&rsquo;t winning championships or being eliminated from competitions because of them. They lacked in drama and felt anticlimactic. Personally, since I backed the idea, I kept hoping they&rsquo;d get better. I could teach myself to love them, the way I did with beer. Maybe they needed to go to five shooters, like they were doing in IIHF competitions? Maybe they&rsquo;d get more exhilarating during the stretch drive when playoff berths and positioning were on the line? For me, that never materialized, the lunch-bag letdown lingered, and I finally made peace with the fact I was wrong about the shootout.</p><p>If it were up to me, I&rsquo;d abolish it before the start of next season, whenever that arrives. I sense I&rsquo;m in the majority, among hockey fans. In a Twitter poll we conducted recently, nearly 62 percent of the more than 7,000 people who voted said they&rsquo;d like the NHL to terminate it. That&rsquo;s not scientific, but it should raise a red flag high enough for it to appear on the league&rsquo;s radar screen.</p><p>This is where a latter-day Brendan Shanahan could make a difference. How refreshing would it be if there was a Shanahan Summit sequel, one in which all ideas put forward by experts to improve the game were considered? It&rsquo;s not that there&rsquo;s anything fundamentally wrong with hockey, but why not explore alterations that could make it even better, give it another turbo-boost? Whether you agree or disagree, we&rsquo;d like to hear from you. Send us your ideas, even if it&rsquo;s &ldquo;No change, please,&rdquo; to <a href="mailto:editorial@thehockeynews.com">editorial@thehockeynews.com</a>, and we&rsquo;ll run a sampling of submissions in a future issue.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/jasonkay_si_0893/667880-1-eng-US/jasonkay_si_0892.jpg" title="jasonkay_si_089" width="418" height="227"></div><p><b>Jason Kay</b><br>Editor in chief</p><span class="image-inline"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/twitterlogo_0216/667873-1-eng-US/twitterlogo_0212.jpg" title="twitterlogo_021" width="42" height="34"></span><p><a datastyle href="https://twitter.com/jkthn"><b>@JKTHN</b></a><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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THE FIRST WORD

GIVE US A SILVER LINING

<div class="byline">By W. Graeme Roustan</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/graeme_rous_0362/667977-1-eng-US/graeme_rous_0362.jpg" title="graeme_rous_036" width="510" height="531"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(PHOTO BY MICHELLE VALBERG)</span></figcaption></div><p>Dear readers,</p><p>Life has changed for everyone since the arrival of the COVID-19 virus, and it has hit hard for many families around the world including The Hockey News family. This was also the first sentence that started off my last Publisher&rsquo;s Note in the Draft Preview issue, and it rings more true today than in the last issue.</p><p>Like the last issue, this one is being produced in digital format only and will not count towards your print subscription, so for you, it is free. If you are a digital-only subscriber, it will count towards your subscription.</p><p>The Hockey News has not missed a beat during this COVID-19 crisis in delivering news and information that our loyal readers have come to expect since 1947. The content that has been produced for the past 73 years has been the very best the hockey world has ever seen, albeit on different types of platforms during this seven-decade-plus timeframe.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/openingthou_0382/667956-1-eng-US/openingthou_0382.jpg" title="openingthou_038" width="736" height="1025"></div><p>Back in 1947, The Hockey News was in newspaper form, which then transitioned into tabloid form in 2002 and then to the magazine format in 2007. After several attempts to get The Hockey News into a tablet form prior to my acquisition of the magazine, in 2019 we launched the new app and tablet format, which has been an outstanding success. The app can be found on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store, or you can read magazine replica versions at <a href="http://zinio.com">zinio.com</a>.</p><p>It comes as no surprise to anyone these days that the future of magazines is quickly heading away from paper towards the digital format, a future that we have been thrust into and are living through today. The efficiency of delivering news and information digitally to our readers is the next step in the evolution of The Hockey News from its newspaper start in 1947. But for as long as I own The Hockey News, the print version of the magazine will always have its place.</p><p>In times like these &ndash; when a crisis may cause questions about the ability of a printer being able to source paper or being deemed an essential service by the government would cause a disruption in the delivery of news and information &ndash; digital is the only answer. Even if you can get the issue printed, are the mail-delivery services in Canada or the U.S. working at full capacity? Are the trucking companies still working? And are the borders open to get the issues across the Canada-U.S. dividing line? Too many questions and not enough answers when it comes time to make the decision to print or go digital.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/openingthou_0392/667949-1-eng-US/openingthou_0392.jpg" title="openingthou_039" width="728" height="727"></div><p>We&rsquo;ve all been forced into the future ways of reading content due to COVID-19, and we must all adapt. The Hockey News content is the best hockey content in the world, which is why <i>Sports Illustrated</i> called me and asked that The Hockey News provide the content on their <a href="http://SI.com">SI.com</a> website, which we have done since February.</p><p>Providing the best hockey content in the world started in 1947, continues today and will going forward, but sometimes it will only be on the digital platform as we evolve into the future.</p><p>We are all lovers of and miss the game of hockey, no one more than me. Neither I nor anyone else knows when the NHL will be back on the ice, so the timing and themes of issues of The Hockey News are not fully known right now. I will continue to communicate with you through my Publisher&rsquo;s Notes and messages online at <a href="http://TheHockeyNews.com">TheHockeyNews.com</a>, so please check the website daily for news and information. In the meantime, be well and help out wherever you can. Hockey people are the best people.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/openingthou_0402/667942-1-eng-US/openingthou_0402.jpg" title="openingthou_040" width="710" height="901"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/graemeroust_0372/667970-1-eng-US/graemeroust_0372.jpg" title="graemeroust_037" width="583" height="123"></div><p><b>W. Graeme Roustan</b><br>Executive Chairman & Publisher, Roustan Media Ltd.<br><b><a href="http://roustan.com">roustan.com</a></b></p><span class="image-inline"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/twitterlogo_0217/667963-1-eng-US/twitterlogo_0212.jpg" title="twitterlogo_021" width="42" height="34"></span><p><b><a datastyle href="https://twitter.com/graemeroustan">@GraemeRoustan</a></b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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Opening Thoughts

Future has been forced upon us

<div class="byline">BY MATT LARKIN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="buzz_sharks_048" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_sharks_0482/668029-1-eng-US/buzz_sharks_0482.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Fans will be gone but the Shark will live on in San Jose to try to give players a more &ldquo;normal&rdquo; experience. <span class="photo-credit">(NEVILLE E. GUARD-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>I</span>T&rsquo;S THE THIRD PERIOD</b> of a one-goal game late in 2019-20 with a playoff spot at stake. The trailing team pulls the goalie. The coach calls a timeout. He starts drawing up a play and prepping six skaters to send over the boards. He glances down the bench to see the other team&rsquo;s coach, craning his neck toward him, hanging on every word. The arena is dead silent. It&rsquo;s empty, with no fans. There&rsquo;s no music playing. And, in a crucial part of this contest, the opposing team can hear every sentence uttered during this timeout.</p><p>That scenario is a stripped-down version of what the NHL&rsquo;s return to play committee has begun envisioning for whenever the league returns from its COVID-19 imposed shutdown, which went into effect March 12. It&rsquo;s a virtual guarantee that world health officials insist the resumptions of pro sports leagues begin with empty venues, which will create unprecedented conditions. Hockey games will look and feel like practices or glorified shinny. How, then, will the competing players have to tweak their strategic approaches? And how will the games be presented to fans watching the broadcasts?</p><p>The Columbus Blue Jackets were one of two NHL teams that had already announced plans to play with no fans before the league shut down, so the organization, from the top down to its players, had already begun envisioning what to expect. Captain Nick Foligno had discussed it with his teammates. &ldquo;We do a lot of scrimmages in training camp, and the amount of things you can hear in the rink is incredible when you only have 20 people sitting in the stands watching,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I think that part of the game, the strategy side, will be the one that is going to change the most, whether it&rsquo;s how you&rsquo;re talking to each other on the bench or how you&rsquo;re communicating certain things. Even coaches, they&rsquo;re so used to yelling at you on the benches, because that&rsquo;s the voice they need to have in order for you to hear them. So the comments are going to be like whispers now.&rdquo;</p><p>Toronto Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe downplays the degree of difficulty the players will face under hear-a-pin-drop conditions. To prepare for them, he&rsquo;s spoken to coaches who have worked in empty barns, and he points out that he already has experience coaching in quiet from his early days behind a bench at the Jr. A level. &ldquo;I think the players themselves would be able to communicate on the ice far better and clearer than they normally could because of the environment,&rdquo; Keefe said. &ldquo;There will be an adjustment period, of course, like anytime there&rsquo;s a change, but I think that the players are competitive enough. It would just become the new normal and be hockey.&rdquo;</p><p>Foligno expresses concern about the adrenaline factor, however. And not just about the surge players get from their home crowd. You can draw just as much juice from the hostility of fans in a road game. So how will players dig down and find it? One possible perk of a quiet rink: if players can hear everything, they can hear every chirp from their rivals, so maybe the environment yields a back-and-forth jawing that feels extremely personal and competitive. That might produce an unexpected level of intensity.</p><p>It&rsquo;s more likely, though, that the key to keeping the atmosphere fiery is to simulate most of the normal arena noise. Foligno and Keefe both said they expect the rinks to pump arena music in to be played between whistles just like in any game, and there&rsquo;s already reason to believe they&rsquo;re right about that.</p><p>The San Jose Sharks were the other team that announced plans for games without fans pre-shutdown, as Santa Clara County was among the first areas in the U.S. to begin entering quarantine. As team president Jonathan Becher explains, he and the organization had already drafted a document, roughly 20 pages long, outlining the hypothetical parameters of holding games without fans in the SAP Center, and the Sharks have continued to tweak it as the months pass.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_nation_0472/668015-1-eng-US/buzz_nation_0472.jpg" title="buzz_nation_047" width="1019" height="849"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>HEAR A PIN DROP</b></p><p>In an empty arena, coaching instructions would change from shouts to whispers.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(AARON DOSTER-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>If the NHL ends up going with a plan to have a few hub cities host all games for a given division, San Jose might not end up being a host, and the Sharks&rsquo; season could even be over already depending on which format the league picks to finish out the games, but their findings are a fascinating template for other teams to follow.</p><p>Before even considering the idea of pumping in music, the Sharks had to calculate how many people were needed in the building for a bare-minimum crew to host a game, and the results were astonishing. Just the two teams and coaches alone get you to 50 people, give or take. Then you have to add the team doctors and training staff. The referees and linesmen. The timekeeper. If the hockey ops departments for both teams are allowed to be on hand, Becher estimates that&rsquo;s 100 people.</p><p>And what about security? Even if it&rsquo;s just external people guarding the building&rsquo;s main entrances, there are dozens of those in any NHL arena. Food is another factor, Becher says. Typically, the players have the option to eat at the arena, as do other staffers working in the building, so the Sharks considered bringing in boxed dinners &ndash; or lunches, depending on whether the new league plan would include afternoon games staggered with night games as multiple teams play in a given venue the same day.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_keefe2/668008-1-eng-US/buzz_keefe2.jpg" title="buzz_keefe" width="1565" height="994"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>GET USED TO IT</b></p><p>Keefe thinks players will quickly acclimatize to fan-free games and communication will actually improve.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(ERIC HARTLINE-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>So the number of people needed to make the game happen rises quickly &ndash; and that&rsquo;s before even considering the crews for TV and radio broadcasts, which would be a must, as the league wouldn&rsquo;t put on games if no one could see them at all. On top of the broadcast teams, &ldquo;You still need the ice crew, you still need the engineers, you still need the cleaners, we call them building services,&rdquo; Becher said. &ldquo;You build up, &lsquo;What does a game look like without fans?&rsquo; and you quickly get to 300 people, even though you don&rsquo;t have full complements of everybody. I&rsquo;m sure that&rsquo;s not what people&rsquo;s mental model was. I&rsquo;m sure it was, &lsquo;Just a bunch of players on the ice, that&rsquo;s it,&rsquo; but it&rsquo;s not true at all.&rdquo;</p><p>Still, the Sharks went the optimistic route and decided to project how things would look with all the building staffers plus broadcast crews. The good news, Becher points out, is the broadcasters are already far removed from the players during games, so the physical distancing checks out, and the radio and TV teams could be separated with some in the press box and some in the luxury boxes.</p><p>The Sharks considered an anthem singer, too, but could probably just play a recording over the PA system. Speaking of which: yes, the plan would be for a fully functional PA announcer, the full in-game music experience, the sponsor signs on the boards and the operation of the electronic scoreboard. &ldquo;Our mental model from the beginning is, we wanted the game and all the hockey rituals as players go to seem exactly as it would be for a regular game,&rdquo; Becher said, &ldquo;from when they come in through our loading dock, to their normal ritual of how they go to the locker room and what they touch. In our building we have the shark (mouth) they walk through, and we still need to do that.&rdquo;</p><p>So the game, under this proposal, might actually feel a fair amount like the real thing. And the Sharks hadn&rsquo;t even ruled out creating the crowd experience. In March, their sound engineers were already experimenting with how to pipe recorded crowd noise into the arena. The sound had too much of an echo, but they&rsquo;ve since pondered a new innovation: streamed sound of actual fans who allow themselves to be mic&rsquo;d up in their homes. Their reactions would then be mixed and played in the arena simultaneously, seconds after events happen on the ice. So a crushing hit from the home team would produce a roar on the speakers, with fans reacting to the play almost in real time.</p><p>But none of these on-ice events can be reacted to, of course, until the broadcast itself gets worked out. And capturing the games will bring a unique set of challenges but also advantages. Once it&rsquo;s established that the staff can do their business safely, there&rsquo;s still the matter of where they do it, explains Rob Corte, vice-president, Sportsnet and NHL production. It&rsquo;s not as simple as parking all the broadcast crew in a separate studio in another building, because, so far, the Sportsnet studio remains closed.</p><p>In a perfect world, Corte says, Sportsnet hopes to have people calling the games live in the building. It&rsquo;s too early to know if the production would go forward with skeleton crews or fully staffed. But since the games are a lock to commence with no fans in the stands, broadcasters are already aware of certain benefits that come with vacated seats.</p><p>Typically, cameras sit in fixed positions to ensure they don&rsquo;t obstruct fans&rsquo; views and aren&rsquo;t obstructed by fans, and those concerns wouldn&rsquo;t matter anymore. &ldquo;By removing fans, you&rsquo;re absolutely opening up a lot more possibilities for us to move cameras around,&rdquo; Corte said. &ldquo;And that means different positions closer to the ice, more robotic cameras&hellip;all of those things are being discussed. Although we all know how important the fan element is to a broadcast, this situation might enable us to try some things out and find some hidden gems as we work through this.&rdquo;</p><p>Sportsnet is also experimenting with various frills it could add to NHL broadcasts. That could include simulating crowd noise, although Corte isn&rsquo;t sold on that, as it doesn&rsquo;t feel authentic enough. It could also include amping up the on-ice audio to bring more of an immersive &ldquo;sounds of the game&rdquo; experience to audiences.</p><p>Whatever Sportsnet decides, it&rsquo;s a safe bet we&rsquo;ll see a higher percentage of NHL games available for national audiences, especially if the games are played in staggered blocks at one venue. No fans mean no gate revenues, so the TV audiences become more important than ever. &ldquo;The desire to get sports and hockey in particular back on the air is huge among the fan base, and once we do start, we&rsquo;re going to want to be able to bring as many games as possible to fans, because they&rsquo;re starved for it,&rdquo; Corte said.</p><p>And the joy the games will bring to the fans is something the players use as motivation, even if it feels strange playing in empty rinks. &ldquo;If we do go back&hellip;we&rsquo;re doing something to hopefully help the public and taking a distraction out of what&rsquo;s been a really tough time,&rdquo; Foligno said. &ldquo;And obviously, we go back over the right reasons. But then again, you have this opportunity to win a Stanley Cup, which is what we all dream of, and you never want to let that go to waste no matter how weird the circumstances are.&rdquo;</p><div class="sidebar"><h4 align="center">For up-to-the-minute coverage, visit</h4><h3 align="center"><b><a href="http://TheHockeyNews.com">TheHockeyNews.com</a></b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></h3></div>

buzz_sharks_048

THE FAN-LESS EXPERIENCE

<div class="byline">BY MATT LARKIN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="buzz_mask1" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_mask120/668074-1-eng-US/buzz_mask12.jpg"></div><h2><b>DAVID AYRES</b></h2><h3><b>&gt;CAROLINA HURRICANES</b></h3><p class="dropcap"><b><span>T</span>HE 42-YEAR-OLD </b>Zamboni driver&nbsp;turned Hurricanes emergency backup had no idea he&rsquo;d be called into action Feb. 22, but his mask suggested he was dressed for success. Could that be why Ayres pulled off a miracle and became the first EBUG to win an NHL game? The simple, sleek art from BMFS Designs&rsquo; Brian Shott includes the home and away Toronto Marlies logos, representing Ayres&rsquo; previous work as their EBUG, with Ayres&rsquo; name on the chin.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_mask217/668067-1-eng-US/buzz_mask22.jpg" title="buzz_mask2" width="557" height="702"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(BRIAN SHOTT/BMFS DESIGNS)</span></figcaption></div><p><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

buzz_mask1

Behind The Mask

<div class="byline">BY RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_jersey_0102/668119-1-eng-US/buzz_jersey_0102.jpg" title="buzz_jersey_010" width="660" height="766"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(PORTLAND WINTERHAWKS)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>PORTLAND WINTERHAWKS</b></h2><h3><b>&gt;2019-20</b></h3><p class="dropcap"><b><span>T</span>HE WINTERHAWKS</b> have always&nbsp;modelled their logo and jersey after NHL Chicago, but this alternate brings a bold new look to the table &ndash; maybe one the Blackhawks would consider in the future.</p><p>First and foremost, that&rsquo;s a really sharp-looking hawk mascot on the front, and the grey really pops against the black background. Typically, Portland wears red with black for its dark sweater, so this is a nice inversion, and the striping on the arms is particularly striking. On top of all that, the brand-new shoulder logo is really good. The &lsquo;P&rsquo; looks cool, while the reference to the Rose City keeps things local.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_jersey_0112/668112-1-eng-US/buzz_jersey_0112.jpg" title="buzz_jersey_011" width="660" height="766"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>ROBBIE</b> <b>FROMM-DELORME</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(PORTLAND WINTERHAWKS)</span></figcaption></div><p><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

buzz_jersey_010

Jersey Hound

<div class="byline">BY BRIAN COSTELLO</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="buzz_marlea_049" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_marlea_0492/668415-1-eng-US/buzz_marlea_0492.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>PATRICK&nbsp;MARLEAU</b></p><p></p> <span class="photo-credit">(STAN SZETO-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>PATRICK MARLEAU </b>should have a pretty special career achievement right this minute if not for circumstances completely out of his control.</p><p>The 40-year-old Pittsburgh Penguins winger &ndash; remember, he was acquired from San Jose at the trade deadline &ndash; could, should, <i>would</i> be the NHL all-time leader in games played if not for 129 games missed due to two lockouts and a season curtailed by COVID-19. Marleau stands at 1,723 regular-season games, fifth all-time but just 44 behind Gordie Howe&rsquo;s 40-year-old record of 1,767 games.</p><p>We&rsquo;re not sure if Marleau will be back at 41 in 2020-21 to resume his hunt, but it would be a shame if work stoppages, rather than injuries or a stark drop-off in play, were the primary reason why he fell short.</p><p>We&rsquo;re using Marleau as a proxy in this subjective Countdown look at individual outstanding single-season performances shortened by circumstance &ndash; whether it be injury, lockout, even contract dispute. Some are unforgettable, others linger only in the minds of hockey historians.</p><p>The durability and resilience of Marleau is something to behold. Not only has he been able to contribute for 22 NHL seasons, he&rsquo;s been able to maintain good health. Should he decide to return, he could top Doug Jarvis&rsquo; record of consecutive games sometime in late 2021.</p><h2><b>1. PITTSBURGH PENGUINS</b></h2><p><b>MARIO LEMIEUX, 27,</b><br><b>1992-93</b><br>Cancer forced him to miss two months and 24 games. Still won the scoring title. Prorated totals: 97 goals, 224 points.</p><h2><b>2. BOSTON BRUINS</b></h2><p><b>CAM NEELY, 28,</b><br><b>1993-94</b><br>Bad hip limited him to 49 games &ndash; yet he still potted 50 goals. A healthy Neely surely beats Fedorov for the Hart.</p><h2><b>3. EDMONTON OILERS</b></h2><p><b>WAYNE GRETZKY, 23,</b><br><b>1983-84</b><br>Missed just six games, but had he not, he would&rsquo;ve blown past iconic records of 92 goals, 212 points from &rsquo;81-82.</p><h2><b>4. FLORIDA PANTHERS</b></h2><p><b>PAVEL BURE, 28,</b><br><b>1999-2000</b><br>With 58 goals in 74 games, a full season would&rsquo;ve produced a third 60-goal season and maybe a Hart over Pronger.</p><h2><b>5. ANAHEIM DUCKS</b></h2><p><b>PAUL KARIYA, 23,</b><br><b>1997-98</b><br>Contract dispute and concussion limited him to 22 games. Pace of 63 goals, 116 points would have won the scoring race.</p><h2><b>6. BUFFALO SABRES</b></h2><p><b>PAT LAFONTAINE, 26,</b><br><b>1991-92</b><br>Concussions held him to 57 games, yet he still almost had 100 points. Prorated 131 would have tied leader Lemieux.</p><h2><b>7. SAN JOSE SHARKS</b></h2><p><b>PATRICK MARLEAU, 40,</b><br><b>2019-20</b><br>He&rsquo;d likely be third on all-time ironman list at 900 straight games without work stoppages in 2012-13 and this season.</p><h2><b>8. NEW YORK ISLANDERS</b></h2><p><b>MIKE BOSSY, 29,</b><br><b>1986-87</b><br>Played just a handful of his 752 games as a 30-year-old. Only non-50-goal season was 38 in 63 games in his final year.</p><h2><b>9. DETROIT RED WINGS</b></h2><p><b>STEVE YZERMAN, 22,</b><br><b>1987-88</b><br>Scored 50 and finished fourth for Hart. Missing 16 games robbed him of chance at three straight 60-goal seasons.</p><h2><b>10. VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS</b></h2><p><b>MARC-ANDRE FLEURY, 33,</b><br><b>2017-18</b><br>Finished fifth in Vezina voting for first-year franchise. He likely would have won had he not missed 25 games.</p><h2><b>11. WASHINGTON CAPITALS</b></h2><p><b>MIKE GREEN, 23,</b><br><b>2008-09</b><br>Scored 31 and lost Norris by a sliver to Chara. Missed 14 games &ndash; his 37 prorated goals would be fifth-most by D-man.</p><h2><b>12. TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS</b></h2><p><b>WENDEL CLARK, 27,</b><br><b>1993-94</b><br>Like Matthews, missed time cost Clark 50 goals. He had career-high 46 in 64 games. He was on pace for 60 goals.</p><h2><b>13. COLORADO AVALANCHE</b></h2><p><b>PETER FORSBERG, 30,</b><br><b>2003-04</b><br>Reigning Hart, Art Ross winner with 106 points was limited to 39 games. On pace for career-high 38 goals, 116 points.</p><h2><b>14. MONTREAL CANADIENS</b></h2><p><b>LARRY ROBINSON, 29,</b><br><b>1980-81</b><br>Was in close battle with Carlyle and Potvin for Norris. Robinson&rsquo;s 15 missed games surely cost him his third Norris.</p><h2><b>15. ST. LOUIS BLUES</b></h2><p><b>CHRIS PRONGER, 26,</b><br><b>2000-01</b><br>Edged Jagr and Bure in Hart voting the year before. This season, he scored at a career-best pace but missed 31 games.</p><h2><b>16. CALGARY FLAMES</b></h2><p><b>GARY ROBERTS, 26,</b><br><b>1992-93</b><br>Power forward was coming off 53-goal season. His 38 goals and 79 points in 58 games prorate to 55 goals, 114 points.</p><h2><b>17. CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS</b></h2><p><b>BOBBY ORR, 28,</b><br><b>1976-77</b><br>Playing on one good leg with new team, he was on pace for close to 100 points before another devastating knee injury.</p><h2><b>18. NEW YORK RANGERS</b></h2><p><b>JEAN RATELLE, 31,</b><br><b>1971-72</b><br>Rangers could have had three 50-goal scorers. Vic Hadfield had 50 in 78 games, Ratelle 46 in 63 and Rod Gilbert 43 in 73.</p><h2><b>19. PHILADELPHIA FLYERS</b></h2><p><b>ERIC LINDROS, 21,</b><br><b>1994-95</b><br>Won only Hart in this lockout-shortened year. His 128-point pace for a full 84 games would have been one for ages.</p><h2><b>20. TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING</b></h2><p><b>STEVEN STAMKOS, 23,</b><br><b>2013-14</b><br>A broken leg cost him Olympic duty and a third 50-goal season. Scored at a 55-goal pace through 37 games.</p><h2><b>21. LOS ANGELES KINGS</b></h2><p><b>ROB BLAKE, 29,</b><br><b>1998-99</b><br>Reigning Norris winner was limited to 62 games. Blake was top-five in Norris voting each of the next four seasons.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_hamilt_0502/668366-1-eng-US/buzz_hamilt_0502.jpg" title="buzz_hamilt_050" width="1015" height="1116"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>DOUGIE</b> <b>HAMILTON</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(JAMES GUILLORY-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>22. CAROLINA HURRICANES</b></h2><p><b>DOUGIE HAMILTON, 26,</b><br><b>2019-20</b><br>Eighth-year D-man has upped his goal production every year. Played 47 games but was on pace for 24 goals, 70 points.</p><h2><b>23. COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS</b></h2><p><b>RICK NASH, 21,</b><br><b>2005-06</b><br>Won the Richard with 41 goals at 19 in &rsquo;03-04. After the lockout, Nash was held to 54 games, but his pace was 47 goals.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_arvids_0512/668289-1-eng-US/buzz_arvids_0512.jpg" title="buzz_arvids_051" width="1020" height="788"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>VIKTOR</b> <b>ARVIDSSON</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(CHRISTOPHER HANEWINCKEL-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>24. NASHVILLE PREDATORS</b></h2><p><b>VIKTOR ARVIDSSON, 25,</b><br><b>2018-19</b><br>Missed all but four games in November and December. For the other 54 games, he scored at a near 50-goal pace.</p><h2><b>25. NEW JERSEY DEVILS</b></h2><p><b>MARTIN BRODEUR, 36,</b><br><b>2008-09</b><br>Runaway leader could have another 30 wins and half-dozen shutouts (and fifth Vezina) if not for time lost to torn bicep.</p><h2><b>26. WINNIPEG JETS</b></h2><p><b>PATRIK LAINE, 18,</b><br><b>2016-17</b><br>Matthews was a worthy Calder winner. But what if Laine hadn&rsquo;t missed nine games? Was on pace to outscore rival.</p><h2><b>27. VANCOUVER CANUCKS</b></h2><p><b>JACOB MARKSTROM, 29,</b><br><b>2019-20</b><br>He was in the Vezina conversation before February injury, near the top of NHL in wins and save percentage.</p><h2><b>28. DALLAS STARS</b></h2><p><b>DERIAN HATCHER, 27,</b><br><b>1999-2000</b><br>Got Norris votes the previous season. Averaged almost 28 TOI and had near career-best point pace in 57 games.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_raanta_0522/668233-1-eng-US/buzz_raanta_0522.jpg" title="buzz_raanta_052" width="680" height="899"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>ANTTI</b> <b>RAANTA</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(JOE CAMPOREALE-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>29. ARIZONA COYOTES</b></h2><p><b>ANTTI RAANTA, 28,</b><br><b>2017-18</b><br>Injuries sidelined him for 22 games and took him out of Vezina conversation. Raanta had .930 SP and 2.24 GAA.</p><h2><b>30. OTTAWA SENATORS</b></h2><p><b>WADE REDDEN, 28,</b><br><b>2005-06</b><br>Hailed as a future Norris winner, he came closest with a career-high 50 points, finishing fifth; missed 17 games to injury.</p><h2><b>31. MINNESOTA WILD</b></h2><p><b>MATHEW DUMBA, 24,</b><br><b>2018-19</b><br>Coming off a 50-point season and riding a star trajectory, he was on a 56-point pace before a torn pectoral.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

buzz_marlea_049

THE COUNTDOWN: SHORTENED GREATNESS

<div class="byline">BY RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="buzz_parise_043" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_parise_0432/668495-1-eng-US/buzz_parise_0432.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>SINGLE SERVING</b></p><p>Parise says he&rsquo;s trying to limit how much he eats in order to maintain his ideal playing weight.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(NICK WOSIKA-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>T</span>HE COVID-19 </b>pandemic knocked the 2019-20 NHL season off-kilter and put players in the unusual situation of being quarantined at home when they&rsquo;d ordinarily be playing games in a crucial stretch of the schedule.</p><p>For injured players, it was a time to recover without missing action. For the rest of the league, it was a time of uncertainty and a strange break in routine: workouts limited to whatever was available at home and no skating at all.</p><p>Depending on position and amount of ice time logged, a typical NHL player can burn between 2,800 and 4,000 calories in one game. An average man needs 2,500 calories a day to maintain a healthy diet. For players accustomed to a physical lifestyle, the quarantine has also had an effect on how they handle their diet and nutrition. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve actually started to eat a lot less,&rdquo; said Minnesota Wild left winger Zach Parise. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re just not burning the calories at the same rate than when you&rsquo;re playing games and practising all the time. I&rsquo;m eating less and maintaining the same weight. It&rsquo;s about experimenting, trying to find what works.&rdquo;</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">YOU&rsquo;RE JUST NOT BURNING CALORIES AT THE SAME RATE <b>AS WHEN YOU&rsquo;RE PLAYING GAMES</b><br>&ndash; Zach Parise</blockquote><p>Fellow University of North Dakota alumnus and current Washington right winger T.J. Oshie has gone through a similar experience. &ldquo;I typically eat fairly healthy, so it&rsquo;s more so portion size,&rdquo; Oshie said. &ldquo;Instead of the 12-ounce steak, I can go down to the eight or the six. But, honestly, it&rsquo;s a lot like the off-season, really, except we don&rsquo;t have access to skating or training with other teammates or buddies. It feels a lot like the summer, but you&rsquo;re not allowed to leave the house.&rdquo;</p><p>Registered dietician and sports nutritionist Jennifer Broxterman has worked with athletes from a variety of sports, including NHLers such as Nathan Beaulieu and Josh Brown. Her advice for the pros? Recognize that your sports car of a body doesn&rsquo;t need as much fuel right now. &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t focus on counting calories,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Focus on making your calories count. Right now is the time to dial in on food quality.&rdquo;</p><p>That means plenty of vegetables, lean proteins and clean carbohydrates such as quinoa and brown rice. And since athletes are still mortal, it&rsquo;s understandable if they want to &ldquo;cheat&rdquo; by eating some junk food; the key is to buy single-serving portions instead of, say, a family-sized bag of chips. Players can also help themselves with their meal portions by using smaller plates and letting their hunger guide their eating, instead of their cravings. Broxterman also mentioned the concept of &ldquo;urge surfing,&rdquo; which posits that waiting at least 15 minutes before giving into a craving will often make that craving go away.</p><p>If there is one silver lining to having their routines broken, it&rsquo;s that NHLers have the chance to deviate from their normal eating regimen, which tends to be a near-constant stream of chicken, pasta and salmon during the season. &ldquo;Honestly, that part has been great,&rdquo; Parise said. &ldquo;Especially when March rolls around, you&rsquo;re pretty tired of eating the same thing. It&rsquo;s been nice to get off that meal plan of constant chicken and pasta. It&rsquo;s nice to branch out a bit.&rdquo;</p><p>Of course, what the players really want is to get back on the ice, once given the all-clear by medical authorities. Having such a break at this time of year is highly unorthodox, and while it is expected that there will be some kind of training camp if the season&rsquo;s schedule is rebooted, it&rsquo;s unknown how quickly players will be able to bounce back. &ldquo;You have to understand your body,&rdquo; said Columbus Blue Jackets goaltender Elvis Merzlikins. &ldquo;You have to feel your body, and you have to feel the puck. I&rsquo;ve never had this experience in my life, and it&rsquo;s the first time for everybody.&rdquo;</p><p>Merzlikins estimated it would take a couple weeks before he would physically be ready for game action, even though he was doing as much as possible in his apartment during the quarantine (the affable Latvian national even half-joked about ordering one of those machines that shoot tennis balls). There&rsquo;s also the matter of honing the mental edge that comes with being a competitor at the highest level. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m missing that, too,&rdquo; Merzlikins said. &ldquo;So I&rsquo;m trying to compete on PlayStation.&rdquo;</p><p>As long as he stays away from the Costco-sized bags of chips while he plays, he should be fine.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

buzz_parise_043

HOLD OFF ON THE PRE-GAME MEAL

<div class="byline">BY MATT LARKIN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="malarkey_hu_042" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/malarkey_hu_0422/668526-1-eng-US/malarkey_hu_0422.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>THE UNLUCKY ONE</b></p><p>The Devils saw little offensive production out of Hughes. Fact is, he generated chances but was extremely unlucky.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(RON CHENOY-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>J</span>OE THORNTON, 40, </b>needed 23 points to pass Paul Coffey for 13th all-time and 47 assists to pass Coffey for seventh all-time. On March 12, the COVID-19 shutdown halted progress. It virtually guaranteed that Thornton would have to play through his age-41 season to pass Coffey or anyone else. It left hockey pundits questioning whether it was time for him to retire.</p><p>&lsquo;Jumbo Joe&rsquo; hasn&rsquo;t won a Stanley Cup and had hoped for a trade to a contender at the 2020 deadline. He insisted in March that his career was nowhere near done. We&rsquo;ll see. Sometimes the body makes the decision for the player. Whatever happens, we&rsquo;ll look back on Thornton&rsquo;s career as remarkable. He&rsquo;s the best passer of his generation, one of the elite dishers of all-time, in the tier of Wayne Gretzky and Adam Oates. He&rsquo;s the game&rsquo;s active leader in assists and points.</p><p>And that&rsquo;s all the more remarkable considering what a colossal flop he was at 18.</p><p>The 1997 draft-day hype suggested mega-stardom. Scouting reports projected an impact on the level of Eric Lindros or Phil Esposito. Central Scouting graded Thornton as a potential &ldquo;10 out of 10&rdquo; player. But after Boston made him the no-brainer No. 1 pick, his infamous rookie year at 18 included three goals and seven points in 55 games while coach Pat Burns nursed him in a fourth-line role.</p><p>We know what happened next, however. Thornton built a Hall of Fame career. He&rsquo;s now the unofficial ambassador for reserving judgment on a rookie who goes bust.</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">THORNTON IS THE UNOFFICIAL AMBASSADOR FOR RESERVING JUDGMENT ON A ROOKIE WHO GOES BUST. <b>DON&rsquo;T COUNT HUGHES OUT YET</b></blockquote><p>Which brings us to this season&rsquo;s high-profile rookie disappointment: Jack Hughes. In his 2019 Draft Preview bio, a scout claimed he looked like a smaller version of Connor McDavid some nights. Our &ldquo;best-case scenario&rdquo; player comparison likened Hughes&rsquo; ceiling to Patrick Kane&rsquo;s. The expectations were, in a sense, higher than Thornton&rsquo;s in 1997 because the game has changed. In the moments after Thornton was drafted, it was telling that a reporter asked Bruins GM Harry Sinden if Thornton could jump right to the NHL. Today, a No. 1 overall pick is expected to be an impact player right away.</p><p>So, yes, Hughes was a letdown in 2019-20. Forget the fact he managed just seven goals and 21 points in 61 games. Even if we compare Hughes only to his peers, his year was terrible. Among 17 rookie forwards who played 500 or more minutes at 5-on-5, Hughes was 16th in goals per 60, 16th in points per 60, first in giveaways per 60 and 16th in team Corsi. The only rookie forward who graded out worse was Kaapo Kakko, the other &ldquo;can&rsquo;t-miss&rdquo; 2019 draft prospect.</p><p>The underlying numbers, however, tell us Hughes was better than he seemed. Among that same sample of 17 freshman forwards, Hughes was seventh in shots per 60, sixth in individual scoring chances per 60, fourth in individual high-danger chances per 60, fourth in rush attempts per 60, third in rebounds created per 60 and first in takeaways per 60. He also posted by far the lowest 5-on-5 shooting percentage of the group at just 2.38. Given how highly he rated in chance quality, that&rsquo;s an unlucky number.</p><p>Hughes also toiled on a Devils team that fired coach John Hynes and traded its Hart Trophy-winning star, Taylor Hall, a couple weeks apart in December, while also enduring career-worst work from $9-million blueliner P.K. Subban. Everything that could go wrong around Hughes did. Combine that with the bad puck luck and it&rsquo;s no wonder Hughes had a rough rookie campaign.</p><p>Sure, we can&rsquo;t say for certain his luck changes. It&rsquo;s not unheard of for a No. 1 pick to go bust. It happened to Alexandre Daigle, Patrik Stefan and Nail Yakupov. But any judgments on Thornton &ndash; not to mention Steven Stamkos early in 2008-09 &ndash; proved to be premature, and Hughes&rsquo; deeper statistics suggest he could fit that bill. Physically, he couldn&rsquo;t be more different from 1997 Thornton as a prospect, but the two could end up following similar career trajectories. Don&rsquo;t count the kid out yet.</p><span class="image-inline"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/twitterlogo_0218/668533-1-eng-US/twitterlogo_0212.jpg" title="twitterlogo_021" width="42" height="34"></span><p><a datastyle href="https://twitter.com/THNMattLarkin"><b>@THNMATTLARKIN</b></a><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

malarkey_hu_042

Malarkey

JACK BE NIMBLE, JACK BE PATIENT

<div class="byline">BY KEN CAMPBELL</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="cave1" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/cave12/668585-1-eng-US/cave12.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(PERRY NELSON-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>F</span>ROM THE MOMENT HE</b> met Colby Cave in 2011, Mark Lamb knew he had found a kindred spirit. Not as a hockey player, though. Lamb had already enjoyed a 400-game NHL career, and, truth be told, he was a much more talented player than Colby Cave could ever hope to be. Where they found their commonality was in their backgrounds. Cave had grown up on a ranch in North Battleford, Sask., about four hours north of where Lamb and his family farmed in Ponteix, population 605.</p><p>&ldquo;We had a lot in common because I was brought up the same way,&rdquo; said Lamb, who was coach-GM of the Swift Current Broncos, the WHL team for which Cave played for four seasons. &ldquo;We used to make jokes about how we would try to get out of doing chores for hockey. I used to do it all the time, and he did, too. What a person. What a player. Gone way, way too soon.&rdquo;</p><p>The hockey world was shocked and stunned to learn that Cave &ndash; a 25-year-old who had spent the past five seasons shuttling between the NHL and the AHL, most recently for the Edmonton Oilers &ndash; died the morning of April 11 at a Toronto hospital after surgery to heal a brain bleed that occurred while he was sleeping in nearby Barrie, Ont., on April 6. Cave&rsquo;s wife, Emily, found him unresponsive that morning. Later that same day, he underwent surgery to remove a colloid cyst that was causing pressure on his brain.</p><p>Even at a time like this, with so much death and uncertainty in the world, the last thing you expect is for a 25-year-old to be randomly struck down in the prime of his life and his career.</p><p>Everything Cave got in hockey, he earned with an extraordinary work ethic and an unceasingly positive attitude. A first-round pick of Kootenay in 2009, Cave was acquired by Lamb in Swift Current in January 2011 as the centerpiece of a trade that sent WHL star and future NHLer Cody Eakin the other way. &ldquo;Cody Eakin is the best player to come to this team since Joe Sakic,&rdquo; said Lamb at the time. And still he traded Eakin, who had just won a silver medal at the world juniors.</p><p>That&rsquo;s how much he thought of the unproven Cave, who captained the Broncos in his last two seasons of junior. &ldquo;He was a total buy-in guy, totally coachable,&rdquo; said Lamb, now coach-GM of the Prince George Cougars. &ldquo;Great teammate. He worked for everything he got. The last two years, he was our best player and our leader. He treated everybody the way you want people to treat people. People gravitated to him, and he had an infectious smile that he brought into the room. He wanted to be a hockey player and he bought into being a hockey player.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/cave32/668571-1-eng-US/cave32.jpg" title="cave3" width="1019" height="803"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(PHOTO COURTESY OF WHL)</span></figcaption></div><p>Cave&rsquo;s agent, Jason Davidson, remembers one day earlier this season when Cave received a call-up from Edmonton and texted him in an Uber en route to the airport in Los Angeles. Not long after, he received another text from his client, saying the Oilers had informed him they didn&rsquo;t need him after all and he was to report back to Bakersfield. &ldquo;He texted me back, and he was like, &lsquo;Yeah, s---, I was in the car, and I was ready to go.&rsquo;&rdquo; Davidson said. &ldquo;Then he just said, &lsquo;I guess I just have to go back to work and play harder tomorrow.&rsquo; That&rsquo;s the kind of person he was. I don&rsquo;t think people realize how hard it is on a guy who gets called up and sent down. But I was looking through my texts with him the past couple years and he never complained. Not once. It didn&rsquo;t matter what day it was or what the circumstances were, you would always see Colby Cave with a smile on his face.&rdquo;</p><p>Bruins defenseman Torey Krug, who played parts of two seasons with Cave in Boston before the Oilers picked him up on waivers, said it was clear Cave had an infectious personality. &ldquo;I played a small role in his career,&rdquo; Krug said. &ldquo;But in the short time I played with him, it was apparent he just attacked whatever situation was right in front of him. It didn&rsquo;t matter if he was going to be the fourth-line center that night or if he was bumped up to play with (David) Pastrnak and (Brad) Marchand like he did for a couple of games, it was always, &lsquo;I&rsquo;m going to make the best of this opportunity and I&rsquo;m going to enjoy it.&rsquo; He just embraced every role he was given and every situation in front of him.&rdquo;</p><p>Earlier this season, Cave was playing for Bakersfield, the Oilers&rsquo; AHL affiliate, and got into a fight with rookie Martin Pospisil of the Stockton Heat. After the two players exchanged haymakers, Cave dropped Pospisil, a 19-year-old Calgary prospect, with a right hand that knocked Pospisil to the ice and rendered him unconscious. Pospisil regained consciousness and skated off but remembered nothing of the incident. The next day, Cave sent Pospisil a text to ensure he was alright. &ldquo;Hey buddy, it&rsquo;s Cave from the other side,&rdquo; the text read. &ldquo;Just wanted to reach out and hope you&rsquo;re OK, buddy. You&rsquo;re a tough kid and I respect a guy that stands up for himself. Hope you have a quick recovery, buddy.&rdquo;</p><p>Pospisil was touched by the gesture and shared it with the world, tweeting his text exchange with Cave, calling his rival &ldquo;a great guy.&rdquo; Hours after Cave&rsquo;s death, Pospisil said simply, &ldquo;Rest in peace, Colby.&rdquo;</p><p>(And just to be clear, there is no indication the colloid cyst was due to any head trauma Cave may have sustained while playing hockey. The cyst was not diagnosed until the surgery was done and Cave did not have an extensive history of concussions. Colloid cysts are a rare congenital disorder. &ldquo;According to the NHLPA doctor,&rdquo; Davidson said, &ldquo;you&rsquo;re born with it, and there&rsquo;s nothing you can do.&rdquo;)</p><p>The Bruins signed Cave as an undrafted free agent after his career in Swift Current, and Davidson said when the Bruins lost him on waivers in January 2019, they were hoping they might be able to sneak him through without being chosen. Part of the reason Cave made it to the NHL is that he had Davidson, a person who passionately believed in him as a player and a person and was one of the people who helped convince Boston to sign him. Davidson read a text he received from Bruins GM Don Sweeney after Cave died. It read: &ldquo;I can easily remember our discussions and your belief in his character. You were so right. We will all miss him.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/cave22/668578-1-eng-US/cave22.jpg" title="cave2" width="1018" height="598"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(PERRY NELSON-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>To make things even more tragic, things were coming together for Cave, both in life and as a player. He and Emily were married in July. You probably know Emily Cave now from the heartbreaking posts she put on social media after the surgery and leading up to her husband&rsquo;s death. After the AHL season was officially cancelled, Cave was informed that if the NHL did start up again, he was going to be called up as a black ace for the Oilers&rsquo; playoff run. He was due to become a restricted free agent this summer and there was always the possibility of Seattle expansion on the horizon. &ldquo;Every GM is looking for a No. 1 center for call-up,&rdquo; Davidson said. &ldquo;They all are. Colby and I would have considered this a real fun time for us, back and forth on which teams were interested and, for once, him having a bit of a say where he wanted to end up for his family and his new wife.</p><p>&ldquo;But we won&rsquo;t get to see that day. That&rsquo;s sad.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

cave1

In Memoriam

COLBY CAVE: 1994-2020

<div class="byline">BY MATT LARKIN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="carlson1" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/carlson13/668665-1-eng-US/carlson12.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(GERRY ANGUS/ICON SPORTSWIRE VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b><i>&ldquo;JOHN CARLSON! Yeah, buddy! I love you!&rdquo;</i></b></p><p><b>&ldquo;ATTACK&rdquo; WOULD BE TOO</b> strong a word, but the big fella has real purpose in his eyes as he charges John Carlson in a hallway at St. Louis&rsquo; Stifel Theatre. There&rsquo;s no time to get out of the way, so Carlson plants his feet, eats the bear hug and poses for a selfie. Satiated, the jolly bro fires off another &ldquo;You da man!&rdquo; and jogs off. It all goes down in about 10 seconds.</p><p>&ldquo;Do you know that guy?&rdquo; I ask.</p><p>&ldquo;Nope,&rdquo; Carlson says.</p><p>Media Day at the 2020 NHL all-star weekend was supposed to be a break from logging monstrous minutes on the Washington Capitals blueline, weathering nightly waves of opposing forwards. But since a fan slipped into a restricted area, Carlson got thrust back into Defenseman Mode for a moment, and he flashed his Norris Trophy-worthy ability to diffuse a situation. His heartrate didn&rsquo;t seem to spike by a single beat.</p><p>It seems nothing or no one can touch Carlson. He&rsquo;s reached a level of production not seen since Brian Leetch&rsquo;s peak in the early 1990s. Logging 24-plus minutes a night on a Caps team loaded with ultra-talented finishers, Carlson scored at a 100-point pace in the season&rsquo;s first half. By mid-March, when the NHL paused its season because of COVID-19, he&rsquo;d predictably slowed down, but he still led Alex Ovechkin, the second-highest scoring player on the team, by eight points and was tracking for 89 overall.</p><p>The last NHL blueliner to reach 90 points in a season was Ray Bourque in 1993-94. If Carlson had finished out the season and cracked 90, he would&rsquo;ve become just the ninth NHL defenseman to do it, and he would&rsquo;ve accomplished the feat in a lower-scoring era than all but one other 90-point D-man. The NHL was averaging 6.04 goals per game in 2019-20. During the 25 other 90-point seasons spread among the eight blueliners, the league averaged fewer goals per game just once: 1969-70. So Carlson&rsquo;s numbers were particularly weighty. It&rsquo;s a shame he probably won&rsquo;t get to play the final 13 games on Washington&rsquo;s schedule.</p><p>On top of the shimmering offensive numbers, Carlson maintains a secondary role as a penalty-killer, remains one of the league&rsquo;s higher-volume shot blockers and will be counted upon in the post-season, if there is one, to play almost half of every game as a true do-it-all defenseman. That type of profile makes him a legitimate Norris Trophy frontrunner.</p><p>His most common defense partner of the past two years, Michal Kempny, has no problem openly campaigning for Carlson to win the award and calls him &ldquo;the best defenseman in the NHL right now.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/carlson42/668651-1-eng-US/carlson42.jpg" title="carlson4" width="2235" height="1242"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>QUEST FOR 90</b></p><p>Carlson didn&rsquo;t get to finish 2019-20, but his near-90-point pace put him in a select group of blueliners.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(GEOFF BURKE-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>So what&rsquo;s changed to make this season particularly magical? This isn&rsquo;t some feel-good tale of a late bloomer. Carlson entered the league as a high-pedigree blueliner, drafted 27th overall in 2008, and famously scored the tournament-winning goal in overtime for Team USA at the 2010 world juniors. Entering 2019-20, he&rsquo;d already topped 55 points three times. From 2017-18 through &rsquo;18-19, he had more points than every blueliner except Brent Burns and ranked sixth in points per 60 minutes among defensemen with 1,000-plus minutes played at 5-on-5.</p><p>Carlson finished fifth in Norris voting in 2017-18 and fourth last season. He was not only a known commodity, but a known star commodity.</p><p>That makes his 2019-20 even more remarkable. He turned 30 in January yet has levelled up to another echelon. &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t surprise me at all,&rdquo; said Capitals right winger T.J. Oshie. &ldquo;Ever since I got to the Caps, you could tell he wasn&rsquo;t fully matured yet, and his game wasn&rsquo;t at the level it was going to get to yet. Over the last four-and-a-half years now, he seems to keep growing, keeps getting better, keeps getting smarter and more experienced. He plays a lot of minutes. Everyone talks about the points he has, which are pretty amazing and pretty special, but with his play all around, playing PK, playing big minutes defensively, playing against other teams&rsquo; top units and top lines, in my eyes, he&rsquo;s the best defenseman in the league.&rdquo;</p><p>The only defenseman to crack 90 points in his 30s is Bourque, who did it twice. Carlson&rsquo;s pace puts him right there with Bourque. This is supposed to be the age at which Carlson&rsquo;s game starts to decline. Why isn&rsquo;t that happening?</p><p>One possible explanation is homework. Carlson has an ideal mentor and sounding board in coach Todd Reirden. Before taking over the head job, Reirden was Washington&rsquo;s assistant/associate coach under Barry Trotz for four seasons, during which time the former NHL defenseman worked closely with the defense corps.</p><p>The Caps finished with a top-two defense in two of those seasons and top-10 three times. Even as head coach now, Reirden is known for sitting down and reviewing specifics with each member of his blueline, and he&rsquo;s done that a lot with Carlson. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re at the top of our sport, so anyone in the NHL, you don&rsquo;t get 10 percent better, you don&rsquo;t get five percent better,&rdquo; Carlson said. &ldquo;And he&rsquo;s very good at just&hellip;whether it&rsquo;s thinking about one thing, watching something or practising something, just trying to get a feel and diagnose a play. To be able to, one practice, worry about playing the puck on your backhand, or one practice just worry about making that first pass around the net. If you really think about one thing, you&rsquo;re probably going to get a lot out of that one thing.&rdquo;</p><blockquote class="pullQuote"><b>IT&rsquo;S BEEN GREAT TO WATCH. I HAD A REALLY STRONG FEELING ABOUT JOHN GOING INTO THIS SEASON</b><br>&ndash; Todd Reirden</blockquote><p>Statistical evidence does suggest Carlson, even at 30, is improving at various little things. On a per-60-minutes basis, he&rsquo;s putting the most shots of his career on net and recording his most primary assists of any season, while he&rsquo;s also absorbing the fewest hits of his career. He&rsquo;s creating more offense while doing a better job eluding opponents. When Carlson&rsquo;s on the ice at 5-on-5, the Capitals as a team have averaged the second-most shots on goal of his 11-season career. It appears he&rsquo;s gotten smarter and more efficient when he has the puck.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/carlson52/668637-1-eng-US/carlson52.jpg" title="carlson5" width="1567" height="932"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>ITS IN THE BLOOD</b></p><p>Reirden takes on an assistant coach persona between games &ndash; sitting down for 1-on-1s with his D-men.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(JAMES GUILLORY-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>That&rsquo;s not Carlson&rsquo;s theory, though. He credits his huge year to forces out of his control. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m a pretty even-keel guy, and that&rsquo;s always helped me in my career,&rdquo; Carlson said. &ldquo;But I feel like I&rsquo;ve just really fed off having a good start, getting some fortunate bounces, some good luck, and we&rsquo;re scoring a lot of goals. When we move the puck, as defensemen, to the type of caliber and skill we have up front, good things are going to happen. One thing I always say, whether I have a lot of points or I&rsquo;m cold and don&rsquo;t have a lot of points is, especially as a defenseman, there are just so many factors that go into it. Sometimes you&rsquo;re on the positive or negative side of that.&rdquo;</p><p>It does help that Carlson plays on a Caps team with Ovechkin tied for the league lead in goals and three players on pace to crack 30 goals. Carlson also gets a dream deployment on the power play. Playing 4:01 per night with the man advantage, he averaged eight seconds more than any other NHL defenseman this season. He also posted the highest shooting percentage of his career at 7.9. So there&rsquo;s some merit to the luck argument.</p><p>The guess here, however, is Carlson doesn&rsquo;t know about those stats. His case for luck comes from a place of modesty and a willingness to look at the world around him and believe he&rsquo;s fortunate rather than special. You&rsquo;ll be hard-pressed to find an athlete as devoted to charity work as Carlson is. He and his wife, Gina, are frequent visitors to children&rsquo;s hospitals, such as St. Jude Children&rsquo;s Research Hospital. When the Capitals won the Stanley Cup in 2018 and Carlson got his day with it, he didn&rsquo;t do what most winners do and bring it to his hometown (Colonia, N.J.). After a stop at Bethesda Fire Station 6 in Maryland, Carlson wheeled the Cup into the atrium of Children&rsquo;s National Hospital in D.C. for a rally. Then he took it upstairs to show it to kids who were too weak to get out of their beds. That night, he brought it to an outdoor fundraiser to combat childhood brain cancer, an event for which he and Gina helped raise more than $100,000 in ticket sales. And the day with the Cup is just a quick snapshot of the Carlsons&rsquo; philanthropic work. &#8233;For Carlson, &ldquo;with great power comes great responsibility&rdquo; rings true, but he says he&rsquo;s driven by more than that. Since he and Gina had their two sons, he&rsquo;s gained a greater appreciation of what sick kids go through and how lucky he is to have two healthy ones. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been around a little bit now to (the point) where some kids are out of the hospital, and they&rsquo;ll come up to me, &lsquo;Hey, remember you brought (the Cup)?&rsquo;&rdquo; Carlson said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s real heartwarming to see or to hear those stories of warriors. These kids are insane. We get sad when our kids get a cold or something and, &lsquo;Oh, they didn&rsquo;t sleep too well last night because they were a little sick.&rsquo; But to see not only the kids but the families, too, who are battling through all that emotionally&hellip;me and my wife, it means a lot to us, and we try to project our feelings in helpful ways.&rdquo;</p><blockquote class="pullQuote"><b>I THINK IT WOULD MEAN MORE LATER ON IN MY LIFE, LOOKING BACK ON A CAREER. I WOULD LOVE TO WIN IT</b><br>&ndash; John Carlson, on potentially winning the Norris Trophy</blockquote><p>Maybe it was the Cup win, or fatherhood, or the fact he&rsquo;s made an estimated $47.4 million in his career, but Carlson speaks with a calm sense of perspective. He doesn&rsquo;t see himself as bigger than the game and doesn&rsquo;t see the game as bigger than real life. Perhaps that&rsquo;s why he&rsquo;s become so much more refined as a leader on the ice.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/carlson23/668630-1-eng-US/carlson22.jpg" title="carlson2" width="1247" height="1713"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>ONE TO WATCH</b></p><p>More often than not, Carlson faces defensive specialists trying to shut him down.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(ANDRE RINGUETTE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Kempny describes him as a joy to play with, someone who &ldquo;coaches his teammates,&rdquo; and he feels Carlson saved his career. When Washington scooped Kempny prior to the 2018 trade deadline for a third-round pick, he had been a regular healthy scratch in Chicago, and his confidence was shattered. He formed a surprisingly great top pairing with Carlson that keyed the Cup run, and Kempny credits Carlson for helping him improve as a player and believe in himself again.</p><p>Breaking in new blueliners has become a crucial part of Carlson&rsquo;s job description. This season alone, that has included Jonas Siegenthaler, Martin Fehervary and Tyler Lewington, who entered the year with 28 combined NHL games, not to mention Carlson&rsquo;s newest partner, trade-deadline acquisition Brenden Dillon. &ldquo;John&rsquo;s been phenomenal,&rdquo; Reirden said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s been great to watch. I had a really strong feeling about John going into this season after some discussions this summer talking about him taking on a bigger leadership role. I really thought it was going to help push him to a different level of play on the ice and also help his leadership off the ice. And he&rsquo;s done an amazing job with a really new defense corps outside of one or two guys. We&rsquo;re not perfect in any aspect of our game right now, but we&rsquo;re in a good spot because of John Carlson. He&rsquo;s received more recognition than he has in the past, and it&rsquo;s all well deserved.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/carlson62/668623-1-eng-US/carlson62.jpg" title="carlson6" width="1564" height="1155"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>THE CARLSON CAUSE</b></p><p>Sharing the Stanley Cup with family meant the world to Carlson. Then he shared it with less fortunate children.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(STEPHEN R. SYLVANIE-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/carlson72/668616-1-eng-US/carlson72.jpg" title="carlson7" width="544" height="809"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(AMBER SEARLS-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>The question now is how much recognition Carlson receives when it&rsquo;s time to hand out the NHL awards. In a mid-season mock vote, the Professional Hockey Writers&rsquo; Association named Carlson its Norris Trophy winner. But that doesn&rsquo;t make him a lock. Voters still have some holes to poke in his game. A popular expression when evaluating an offense-minded Norris hopeful is, &ldquo;he ain&rsquo;t Rod Langway.&rdquo; It applies to Carlson. His offensive game is stupendous, but he grades out as more of an average defender. It&rsquo;s high-event hockey when he&rsquo;s on the ice.</p><p>The Capitals generate many chances when he&rsquo;s out there but also allow a bunch &ndash; the most shots per 60 minutes of his career. He&rsquo;s also not always tasked with shutting down every team&rsquo;s elite forwards. His most common forwards faced this year at 5-on-5 are Sean Couturier, Travis Zajac and Phillip Danault&ndash; all shutdown forwards. In other words, Carlson is being treated by opponents as the threat rather than someone to challenge with <i>their</i> threats. They send their best defensive players out in hopes of neutralizing <i>him</i>.</p><p>So his success is impressive more in the sense that he&rsquo;s producing offense against great defensive players rather than stymieing elite offensive ones.</p><p>Luckily for Carlson, the award is the Norris, not the Langway. It goes to &ldquo;the defense player who demonstrates throughout the season the greatest all-around ability in the position,&rdquo; and it&rsquo;s tough to top Carlson in that criterion. &ldquo;It would mean a lot,&rdquo; Carlson said. &ldquo;I think it would mean more later on in my life, looking back on a career. I would love to win it. Everyone would love to. If it happens, it happens. I think I&rsquo;m good at not thinking about too far ahead of me and just trying to focus on what&rsquo;s happening in front of me, because I don&rsquo;t really have too much time to do all that thinking. So I&rsquo;m just worried about how I&rsquo;m playing. Where I want to be physically going into the end of the year and the playoffs is really my top priority.&rdquo;</p><p>Spoken like a man who has experienced a lot and matured a lot over the past few years. Carlson appreciates everything, expects nothing and just might walk home with something whenever this season ends, whether it&rsquo;s a Norris, another Stanley Cup or both.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/carlson83/670485-1-eng-US/carlson8.jpg" title="Carlson8" width="1080" height="4772"></div><p><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

Carlson8

John Carlson

CAPITAL ACHIEVEMENT

<div class="byline">BY KEN CAMPBELL</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="baker1" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/baker13/668738-1-eng-US/baker12.jpg"></div><blockquote class="pullQuote"><b>WHEN YOU SEE WHAT HE OVERCAME TO BE THE MAN HE IS TODAY, IT REALLY MAKES YOUR DOWN DAYS SEEM PRETTY INSIGNIFICANT</b><br>&ndash; Kevin Labanc</blockquote><p class="dropcap"><b><span>B</span>Y ANY MEASURE, </b>2019-20 has been nothing short of a disaster for Kevin Labanc and the San Jose Sharks. One season after advancing to the Western Conference final, &lsquo;Los Tiburones&rsquo; have inexplicably cratered to the bottom of the NHL standings and the reward could be watching the Ottawa Senators pick a player in the top three of the draft with their selection.</p><p>As for Labanc, after establishing himself as a go-to secondary scorer and a clutch playoff performer last season, he bet on himself and accommodated the Sharks as they tried to emerge from salary-cap hell, taking a one-year deal worth just $1 million, counting on having a big year and leveraging his arbitration rights into a long-term, big-money extension.</p><p>But as is the case with Labanc&rsquo;s team, almost everything has gone wrong. His scoring dried up, and while it&rsquo;s a much-maligned statistic, you have to scroll through to page 18 of <a href="http://NHL.com">NHL.com</a>&rsquo;s plus-minus stats to get to his minus-33 rating, which is tied for fifth-worst in the NHL. Of the seven players competing for the green jacket, Labanc is the only one who has not played at least part of the season with the Detroit Red Wings.</p><p>In the short term at least, it doesn&rsquo;t look as though he&rsquo;ll be doing as his Twitter account suggests and going @Str8ToTheBanc.</p><p>So, yeah, the game of hockey can occasionally give you a kick in the pills with a steel-toed boot. To be sure, it tests your resolve at the best of times and, contrary to what some think, doesn&rsquo;t owe anyone a darn thing. Labanc knows that as well as anyone.</p><p>Instead of signing him and having him turn pro after his last season of junior in 2015, the Sharks sent Labanc back as a 20-year-old overage player. When he did reach the NHL, he followed up a strong start to his rookie season by scoring one goal in his final 31 games. And in Game 5 of the Sharks&rsquo; 2019 first-round series against Vegas &ndash; you remember that one, right? &ndash; Labanc watched the third period from the bench after making a couple of key defensive mistakes.</p><p>But Labanc also knows there is so much good that can be extracted from the bad. Five nights after being benched, he scored a goal and added three assists in a four-minute span, all on the power play, as the Sharks completed one of the most dramatic comebacks in NHL playoff history.</p><p>And if the Sharks hadn&rsquo;t sent him back to major junior in 2015-16, Labanc would never have led the OHL in scoring. More importantly, he would never have had the chance to get to know a remarkable man by the name of Scott Baker. (Or his daughter, but more on that later.) In fact, when the nadirs of the game creep in, all Labanc has to do is think of Baker, his former billet in Barrie, Ont., who has become his quasi-father/father-in-law, and he gains the perspective he needs in fairly quick order.</p><p>&ldquo;What an awesome person,&rdquo; said Labanc of Baker. &ldquo;When you see what he overcame to be the man he is today, it really makes your down days seem pretty insignificant.&rdquo;</p><p>The night of Oct. 2, 1982, held so much promise for Scott Baker, a Montreal native who grew up in Toronto. He was 21 and co-captain of the Kent State hockey team on a partial scholarship. He was majoring in phys-ed and had designs on becoming a teacher. Baker was particularly excited for what was about to be his junior year, in large part because he was going to have a chance to play on the Golden Flashes varsity team with his 19-year-old brother, Chris, who was joining the program as a freshman.</p><p>Baker had just finished having dinner that Saturday night with Jon Straffon, the team&rsquo;s other co-captain, and Straffon&rsquo;s girlfriend, Cynthia Pelligrino, who was the co-captain of the school&rsquo;s gymnastics team. Baker doesn&rsquo;t remember where they were headed after dinner, but at about 10:30 that night, they piled into Straffon&rsquo;s 1968 Chrysler Newport, with Straffon and Pelligrino in the front seat and Baker in the back.</p><p>And it was that night that everything changed for Scott Baker. He always refers to that as the night he was hurt. Not paralyzed, not confined to a wheelchair, not had his entire world turned upside down. But hurt, just hurt. Because that&rsquo;s the way Scott Baker is. &ldquo;Yeah,&rdquo; Baker said, &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know why.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/baker92/668731-1-eng-US/baker92.jpg" title="baker9" width="1380" height="1394"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>OVERAGE BONUS</b></p><p>Before making it in San Jose, Labanc spent an extra year in Barrie, which altered the course of his future.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(STAN SZETO-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>According to the police report, Straffon&rsquo;s car was making a left turn at an intersection near downtown Kent, Ohio, at the same time two other Kent students, both drunk, were drag racing in separate cars. The first car hit the back of Straffon&rsquo;s car and sent it spinning. Baker, who was not wearing a seatbelt, was thrown from the vehicle and hit by the second speeding car.</p><p>When everything came to a screeching and sickening halt, Baker was crushed in the wheel well of the second car. &ldquo;Just absolutely mangled up,&rdquo; he said. Straffon sustained a broken cheekbone, while Pelligrino had a separated shoulder and the drivers of the other two cars were uninjured. Baker was not as lucky, but depending upon your perspective, he was incredibly lucky.</p><p>Since that night, almost 38 years ago, Baker has been paralyzed from the waist down. The accident severed his spinal cord at the ninth and 10th thoracic vertebra, more commonly known as T-9 and T-10. His back was broken, and his right arm was so badly broken that his hand is at a 45-degree angle from his wrist. &ldquo;We always called it &lsquo;The Claw&rsquo;,&rdquo; joked Baker&rsquo;s daughter, Kelly. &ldquo;When we were little kids, he would pretend it was a crab and grab us with it. That was our normal.&rdquo;</p><p>Baker was in hospital for several days in Kent, then was airlifted to St. Michael&rsquo;s Hospital in his hometown of Toronto, and it was in the air ambulance that he first emerged from his coma. &ldquo;I remember my dad fighting with the nurse or the doctor because they came in and said, &lsquo;You&rsquo;re paralyzed. You&rsquo;re never going to walk again,&rsquo;&rdquo; Baker said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m trying to take all this in and my dad is all upset, yelling at the nurse because she told me I was never going to walk again. It&rsquo;s harder on the parents, it really is. I&rsquo;m watching all this and I say to myself, &lsquo;Yeah, you&rsquo;re in a bad place, but you&rsquo;ve got to move on.&rsquo; I think I took it a lot better than my parents did.&rdquo;</p><p>So, Baker took his own advice and got on with his life.</p><p>The students driving the other cars were sentenced to six months in jail and $1,000 in court costs, but the judge reduced the punishment to $200 and a suspended sentence on the condition they attend DWI school and had no alcohol-related offenses for two years. Hey, it was the 1980s.</p><p>To make matters worse, neither of the other drivers had insurance, so Baker had to actually sue his co-captain and the driver of the car, Jon Straffon, because he was insured. Baker ended up with a small payout from the insurance company, no future as a hockey player and the realization that it&rsquo;s almost impossible to be a gym teacher from a wheelchair. But a lot of other things aren&rsquo;t impossible.</p><blockquote class="pullQuote"><b>I REMEMBER MY DAD FIGHTING WITH THE NURSE OR THE DOCTOR BECAUSE THEY SAID, &lsquo;YOU&rsquo;RE PARALYZED. YOU&rsquo;RE NEVER GOING TO WALK AGAIN&rsquo;</b><br>&ndash; Scott Baker</blockquote><p>So he went back to Kent State and enrolled in finance and got a gig helping to coach the men&rsquo;s hockey team that included his younger brother. And he met Ellen Whittaker, a fellow phys-ed student upon whom he had a crush when they were freshmen.</p><p>Baker would go to the Golden Flashes games and sit in the stands with a headset, communicating with the assistant coaches who were at ice level. One night at a game, Ellen was chosen to shoot a puck down the ice into the opposite net to win a promotional dinner at Pizza Hut. A native of nearby Canton, Ellen had never actually held a hockey stick before that and desperately asked Baker for a quick tutorial before she stepped on the ice. &ldquo;I said to her, &lsquo;If you get that in, we&rsquo;re going on a date for the pizza after,&rsquo;&rdquo; Baker said. &ldquo;And that&rsquo;s how we kind of started our relationship.&rdquo;</p><p>Being in a wheelchair did not prevent Baker from stealing Ellen&rsquo;s heart. It actually didn&rsquo;t prevent him from doing much of anything. It still doesn&rsquo;t.</p><p>After Kent State, Baker resettled in Toronto, then later moved to Barrie for a job opportunity. He and Ellen set about building a life there and had three children. He always worked, never believing he was entitled to anything more than anyone else. At one point, he created a device so he could play golf. The scooter allowed him to be upright enough so that he could hit a golf ball. About 175 yards. With one hand.</p><p>He taught all three of his children, 27-year-old twins Joe and Kelly and 23-year-old Matt, how to golf. He coached Kelly in soccer and Matt in elite hockey, barking out drills from his wheelchair at center ice and having the players push him to different points in the rink.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/baker122/668724-1-eng-US/baker122.jpg" title="baker12" width="651" height="640"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>MATT</b> <b>BAKER</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(DOUG AUSTIN/DARTMOUTH ATHLETICS)</span></figcaption></div><p>He had a stand-up type of wheelchair so he could direct his teams from behind the bench. When his teams would go to tournaments, several parents would lift Baker into the team bus and put him in the front seat. One time he was coaching Matt&rsquo;s Barrie Colts AAA team and the knee brace that held him in place in the stand-up chair gave away and he went tumbling out behind the bench, to the amusement of his players. Next season will be Matt&rsquo;s senior year at Dartmouth, where he plays Div. I hockey. When Matt applied to Dartmouth, he wrote his admission letter about his father.</p><p>Five years ago, Kelly returned home from work one day to find nobody in the house. She thought that was odd, so she went outside to see if her father, then in his mid-50s, was in the back. The Bakers live on an old farmstead and the barn is set back about 500 yards from the house. It&rsquo;s where they keep their 20-foot pontoon boat that they use in the summer at their cottage. &ldquo;I look over to the barn, and I just the see the boat moving out of the barn,&rdquo; Kelly said. &ldquo;And I&rsquo;m saying, &lsquo;What the heck is going on? Nobody is here to move the boat. Why is it moving?&rsquo; So I drive over and I see my dad with a harness strapped to him, and he&rsquo;s wheeling this massive pontoon boat out of the barn to put on his car to take to the cottage because he wants to go fishing. He&rsquo;s so strong, it&rsquo;s unbelievable.&rdquo;</p><p>In more ways than one. It&rsquo;s one thing to cope with a disability. It&rsquo;s another to thrive. Kelly played soccer at the University of Guelph, which is about 100 miles from Barrie, and her father never missed a game, home or away. Many weekends during the hockey season, he and Ellen will travel to watch Matt play for Dartmouth in Hanover, N.H., or Scott will drive eight hours to the games with his 86-year-old father, Peter. Scott has been a beer salesman, worked at a car dealership and most recently sells wheelchairs. &ldquo;He goes through life as if nothing has happened. Nothing,&rdquo; Kelly said. &ldquo;To us, it&rsquo;s completely normal. Our life is totally normal. There&rsquo;s nothing abnormal about having a dad in a wheelchair.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/baker52/668717-1-eng-US/baker52.jpg" title="baker5" width="1385" height="703"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>FAMILY STRONG</b></p><p>The Baker family has grown since siblings Joe, Kelly and Matt played in the Barrie backyard as kids.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(PHOTOS COURTESY OF ELLEN & KELLY BAKER)</span></figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/baker72/668710-1-eng-US/baker72.jpg" title="baker7" width="1019" height="640"></div><p>Part of Baker&rsquo;s duties when he coached at Kent State was recruiting, something he continued to do after he settled in Barrie. It was there that he would often run into other junior and pro scouts and started to build a network.</p><p>In 1985, both he and his father were working for Molson Breweries, and Baker&rsquo;s father found out the Montreal Canadiens were looking for a scout in the Barrie area. Baker got the job as a part-time scout and did that for 13 years, earning a Stanley Cup ring when the Canadiens won in 1993. He keeps it in the bathroom, of all places. It made for very good show-and-tell fodder for Baker&rsquo;s children at school. &ldquo;Everyone else is bringing in their hamster,&rdquo; Matt said, &ldquo;and I&rsquo;m bringing in a Stanley Cup ring.&rdquo;</p><p>Although Baker spent most of his time scouting midget players to give the Canadiens a book on young players who were still years away from being drafted, he did have significant input on some of their picks. He lobbied for the organization to choose defenseman Craig Rivet in 1992 and four years later was high on winger Jan Bulis, who had played for the Barrie Colts.</p><blockquote class="pullQuote"><b>HE GOES THROUGH LIFE AS IF NOTHING HAS HAPPENED. NOTHING. THERE&rsquo;S NOTHING ABNORMAL ABOUT HAVING A DAD IN A WHEELCHAIR</b><br>&ndash; Kelly Baker</blockquote><p>The Canadiens were set to take Bulis in the second round, but he was nabbed by the Washington Capitals at 43rd overall, one pick before the Canadiens&rsquo; selection. Baker was heartened when the Canadiens acquired Bulis, along with Richard Zednik, at the trade deadline in 2001 and Bulis gave them four fairly productive seasons.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/baker112/668696-1-eng-US/baker112.jpg" title="baker11" width="652" height="891"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>RING BEARER</b></p><p>Baker earned a Stanley Cup ring in 1993 as a part-time regional scout for the Montreal Canadiens.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(PHOTOS COURTESY OF SCOTT BAKER)</span></figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/baker82/668703-1-eng-US/baker82.jpg" title="baker8" width="330" height="475"></div><p>If that wasn&rsquo;t enough, Scott and Ellen began to take in Colts players as billets. So when Labanc was dispatched back to junior for 2015-16, he was assigned to live with them. And he had a monster year, leading the OHL in assists (88), points (127) and plus-minus (plus-60). He was named the league&rsquo;s overage player of the year and finished second in the CHL&rsquo;s scoring race to Conor Garland, who had one more point playing for Moncton in the QMJHL.</p><p>Labanc and Kelly, who is three years older, immediately hit it off, but Kelly spent most of that season in Australia. &ldquo;The first night he showed up, we stayed up until five in the morning just sharing stories,&rdquo; Kelly said. &ldquo;We had no relationship at all at the beginning. We were just best friends, and then the friendship progressed, and we just started to fall in love with each other. We had our first date just as that season was about to end, and here we are.&rdquo;</p><p>Kelly and Labanc now live together in San Jose, and she works in real estate. Labanc, meanwhile, feels like a part of the Baker family because that&rsquo;s the way they made him feel right from the time he first went through their door. He signed his first NHL contract on Scott Baker&rsquo;s kitchen table. One night, Labanc came home from a game and Scott had an entire scouting report prepared on him.</p><p>He tries not to be a scout with either Labanc or his son Matt these days, but, you know, old habits die hard. &ldquo;Once a scout, always a scout,&rdquo; Scott said. His scouting report on Labanc: Very good hockey sense, an excellent shot and power-play specialist. He&rsquo;s a deceptive skater. He&rsquo;s a little awkward to look at, and he&rsquo;s not a smooth-looking skater, but he&rsquo;s quick. And on Matt: An excellent skater, very good hockey sense. Plays bigger than his size and a very hard worker.</p><p>Scott Baker will turn 60 in December, but he has no plans to slow down. He intends to see as many of Matt&rsquo;s games this season as he can, and when he&rsquo;s not doing that, he&rsquo;ll be at Colts games or watching the NHL on television.</p><p>In his business selling wheelchairs, he meets a lot of families facing the same devastation he and his parents did in 1982. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m the perfect guy to do it,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;because I can tell the parents that I was in that spot. &lsquo;You&rsquo;ll get through it, you&rsquo;ll be fine, and he&rsquo;ll go on and get a life and have kids and a job.&rsquo;&rdquo;</p><p>And if that person is really determined, he or she might come close to accomplishing what Scott Baker has done.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

baker1

Scott Baker

The epitome of resilience

<div class="byline">BY ALEX PREWITT / Sports Illustrated</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="wickenheise_023" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/wickenheise_0232/668790-1-eng-US/wickenheise_0232.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(PHOTO BY DAVE HOLLAND)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>H</span>AYLEY WICKENHEISER </b>climbed the Olympic podium five times in her illustrious career, capturing four gold medals and one silver as Team Canada&rsquo;s star center before retiring in January 2017 with &ndash; at least unofficially &ndash; the title of history&rsquo;s greatest female hockey player. But in mid-March, the 41-year-old took an entirely different sort of stand regarding the Games.</p><p>Wickenheiser is a member of the IOC Athletes&rsquo; Commission, a peer-elected board that advises the Olympics&rsquo; governing body. She had grown frustrated with IOC president Thomas Bach&rsquo;s steadfast stance that Tokyo 2020 would continue as planned this summer, even as the coronavirus pandemic shut down nation after nation. And so, on March 17, she sent a Twitter missive more sizzling than any wrist shot, urging the IOC to provide some &ndash; any &ndash; direction to the thousands of athletes suddenly stuck in limbo, their qualifying events cancelled and their training centers shut down.</p><p>&ldquo;Insisting this will move ahead, with such conviction, is insensitive and irresponsible given the state of humanity,&rdquo; Wickenheiser wrote. &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t know what&rsquo;s happening in the next 24 hours, let alone in the next three months.&rdquo;</p><p>The tweet took off and, more importantly, sparked action. Before long, prominent organizations including USA Swimming and USA Track & Field issued calls for a postponement, as did the Olympic committees of Brazil, Norway and several other countries. Then, on March 22, Canada became the first nation to declare that its athletes wouldn&rsquo;t participate this summer out of health concerns due to COVID-19. Two days later, Tokyo 2020 officially became Tokyo 2021.</p><p>For Wickenheiser, the postponement announcement was somewhat bittersweet. She sympathized with her fellow Olympians, whose dreams were now delayed. But she also felt a sense of relief &ndash; that the IOC had made a decision, that her message had taken hold. &ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t sit silently anymore, given what I was seeing in the emergency rooms and hearing from my friends in hospitals across the country,&rdquo; Wickenheiser said.</p><p>Several months earlier, when the disease had barely spread beyond China and life in Canada hummed along at its usual clip, Wickenheiser&rsquo;s attitude toward the coronavirus was far from urgent. An aspiring ER doctor in her final year of medical school, she began working on rotation at four Toronto-area hospitals. &ldquo;I saw a shift from thinking this will blow over, everything will be OK,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;to a scenario where it was a little bit more panic.&rdquo;</p><p>Wickenheiser hasn&rsquo;t treated any COVID-19 patients, a directive from her program at the University of Calgary prohibits trainees from doing so. But she has witnessed the front-line fight nonetheless, watching doctors handle suspected cases inside isolated negative-pressure rooms. The day before her Olympics tweet, for instance, she observed an airline pilot in his late 30s, with no underlying health conditions, enter respiratory distress and receive intubation after at least one coronavirus-positive patient flew on his plane.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/wickenheise_0252/668783-1-eng-US/wickenheise_0252.jpg" title="wickenheise_025" width="383" height="600"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(PHOTO COURTESY OF HAYLEY WICKENHEISER)</span></figcaption></div><p>Seeing the healthcare community mobilize in the face of such an unprecedented challenge reminded Wickenheiser of what brought her to medicine in the first place. When she was around nine, a neighborhood friend in rural Saskatchewan was struck by a delivery truck. &ldquo;I remember going to the hospital almost every day to visit her,&rdquo; Wickenheiser said. &ldquo;Seeing how the doctors and nurses cared for her, that&rsquo;s what inspired me.&rdquo; Soon young Hayley was fantasizing about playing for the Edmonton Oilers and attending Harvard Medical School, wearing a crimson sweater with a giant &lsquo;H&rsquo; until it was virtually reduced to threads.</p><p>Even a long and decorated hockey career, which included seven world championship golds and an historic stint in a Finnish professional men&rsquo;s league, couldn&rsquo;t alter that plan. &ldquo;Being a female hockey player, you&rsquo;re not making millions of dollars,&rdquo; Wickenheiser said. &ldquo;Got to think about life after sport, right?&rdquo; After obtaining an undergraduate kinesiology degree and a master&rsquo;s of science from the University of Calgary, Wickenheiser entered medical school in July 2018.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/wickenheise_0262/668776-1-eng-US/wickenheise_0262.jpg" title="wickenheise_026" width="1193" height="774"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>CRISIS ACTION</b></p><p>Wickenheiser has used her profile to share concerns from the medical community.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(PHOTOS COURTESY OF CONQUER COVID-19)</span></figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/wickenheise_0272/668769-1-eng-US/wickenheise_0272.jpg" title="wickenheise_027" width="744" height="683"></div><p>The next month, she doubled up on her duties by taking a job in the Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; front office, where she helps oversee the team&rsquo;s prospects as assistant director of player development. And when she was chosen to enter the Hall of Fame in June 2019, she missed the news-breaking call from selection committee chairman Lanny McDonald. She was tied up in a code-blue simulation, practicing resuscitating a patient in cardiopulmonary arrest.</p><p>But nothing could have prepared her &ndash; or any healthcare provider &ndash; for the challenge of a lifetime. As the coronavirus case count grew throughout Canada, Wickenheiser developed what she describes as &ldquo;this free-floating anxiety going into the hospital,&rdquo; even though she wasn&rsquo;t directly seeing COVID-19 patients. The feeling would persist until she shed her scrubs in the garage of her Toronto home and promptly bolted for the shower, not wanting to risk any contamination inside.</p><p>And here, she was hardly alone. Just as numerous athletes would soon reach out to express angst over the IOC&rsquo;s inaction, friends throughout the Canadian medical community began funnelling their concerns to Wickenheiser, too, asking her to use her platform. An ER doctor called while driving to pick up spare ventilators from another city. An ICU intensivist lamented that his hospital had only 150 beds when he anticipated needing 2,000. Another healthcare worker asked Wickenheiser to tweet a public-service plea for non-medical personnel to stop swiping protective masks, gloves and gowns.</p><p>Wickenheiser and her fellow med students remain in coronavirus-induced limbo, having been removed from all acute emergency scenarios in mid-March as precaution. Some trainees were redeployed to help staff call centers. Others were assigned to assist the contact-tracing effort, mapping the spread of infection throughout the country. Still more have simply been helping doctors in any way possible, whether by researching or babysitting. &ldquo;Whatever they need,&rdquo; Wickenheiser said.</p><p>She continues to stay busy during the shutdown. On top of writing training programs for Leafs prospects, working out in her basement gym, hosting Instagram live chats to pass along hockey tips, FaceTiming relatives and dictating notes for her upcoming autobiography &ndash; the working title is <i>Relentless</i> &ndash; Wickenheiser also devotes a few hours each day to studying medicine.</p><p>And she&rsquo;s still using her voice to help. Her Twitter timeline is speckled with calls to her 77,000-plus followers to curb a national shortage of N95 facemasks, to allow reusable respirators in hospitals, to &ldquo;practice social distancing and stay the (cough) home,&rdquo; as she said in one video.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a little crazy right now,&rdquo; Wickenheiser said. &ldquo;But the calmer we stay, the more we isolate from each other&hellip;if we do our part at home and on the front lines, we have a chance to combat this as a mass group of humanity.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

Hayley Wickenheiser

One of a kind

<div class="byline">BY MATT LARKIN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="newton1" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/newton12/668915-1-eng-US/newton12.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(PHOTO BY JIRI HALTTUNEN)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>I</span>T WAS THE BIGGEST</b> night of Jake Newton&rsquo;s hockey career, and he couldn&rsquo;t shake the terror. He wasn&rsquo;t merely fending off the butterflies that accompany any youngster&rsquo;s first NHL pre-season game. This was true fear, the urge toward flight over fight, the sense something or someone was out to hurt him.</p><p>Newton, 22 at the time, had the best opportunity of his life in front of him. He was a 6-foot-3, 200-pound puck-moving defenseman signed out of college to an Anaheim Ducks club that had just lost Scott Niedermayer to retirement. Five minutes into a Sept. 24, 2010, clash with the San Jose Sharks, Newton buried a feed from Ryan Getzlaf for a power-play goal. It was a high unlike any Newton had experienced before.</p><p>Five minutes after that came the game&rsquo;s first fight. Then, 21 seconds later, another. Then, 13 seconds later, another. The Ducks and Sharks threw down six times that night. Every time a brawl broke out, Newton was paralyzed with fright. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m just sitting there thinking, &lsquo;Man, I really hope nobody asks me to fight,&rsquo;&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Because I&rsquo;m trying to make this team, I really need to say yes and fight this guy. But I&rsquo;m not a fighter. I don&rsquo;t know how to fight. Even if I were a guy that were to be more aggressive, all that stuff in my past would be so present in my mind going into a fight.&rdquo;</p><p>A fight was never just a fight for Newton. Any time he stared down an angry male opponent, he didn&rsquo;t see a fellow hockey player. All Newton saw was the abuser from his childhood. All Newton saw was his cousin.</p><p>It started when Newton was about five growing up in San Jacinto, Calif. His cousin was 17 and, in the eyes of Newton&rsquo;s parents, a trusted live-in family member who could watch Newton and his other siblings after school. Instead, that&rsquo;s when the sexual abuse took place. Because Newton was so young, he didn&rsquo;t understand that telling his parents could&rsquo;ve stopped the horrors.</p><p>All the cousin had to do was threaten repeatedly to hurt Newton, which, for a five-year-old&rsquo;s mind, was worse than any alternative. &ldquo;I remember so vividly one time walking up the steps at my parents&rsquo; house, the house my mom still lives at to this day, and I can see through into the living room, and I&rsquo;m looking at him, thinking to myself, &lsquo;If I go and do this, this guy, 20 minutes after, is going to come and beat me up.&rsquo; And I&rsquo;m so terrified by that thought that I didn&rsquo;t say anything.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/newton22/668908-1-eng-US/newton22.jpg" title="newton2" width="743" height="1190"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>BETTER DAYS</b></p><p>Newton, a father of two, is fully embracing the present after dealing with his troubled past.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(PHOTOS COURTESY OF JAKE NEWTON)</span></figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/newton32/668901-1-eng-US/newton32.jpg" title="newton3" width="745" height="725"></div><p>The abuse continued for two years. It might have lasted longer if not for Newton&rsquo;s older sister. His repressed memories are hazy, he says, but as he recalls it, his sister came home early one day, saw a locked door that wasn&rsquo;t supposed to be locked, found a way in and caught the cousin in the act. He wound up getting sent to a juvenile-detention facility. The abuse was over, but the long-term damage was only just beginning to manifest itself.</p><p>Newton never received professional help in the immediate years after the abuse. With so much unresolved trauma, he developed emotional problems as he matured into his teen years. He&rsquo;d experience sudden and rapid mood swings almost daily. He describes himself as extremely emotional back then, quick to cry. Yet he still fought through the feelings and rose up the ranks as a legitimate hockey prospect. By his late teens, he ended up in the highly respected NAHL, playing for the Texas Tornado. A year after that, he was repping the Lincoln Stars at the USHL All-Star Game. By 2009-10, he&rsquo;d made the NCAA all-rookie team with Northeastern. That&rsquo;s when the Ducks came calling.</p><blockquote class="pullQuote"><b>ALL THAT STUFF IN MY PAST WOULD BE SO PRESENT IN MY MIND GOING INTO A FIGHT</b><br>&ndash; Jake Newton</blockquote><p>Newton did everything he could to lock away his demons during his ascent, but they couldn&rsquo;t stay hidden. Whenever things got violent on the ice, he saw his cousin and &ldquo;instantly clicked into little Jake,&rdquo; he said. The day after that fight-filled NHL pre-season game in 2010, the Ducks sent Newton down to AHL Syracuse. He never made it back up. He was traded to Colorado the next season, then demoted from the AHL to the CHL, and that&rsquo;s when the demons really ran him down. The Allen Americans played in Texas, not far from a bordering town of Frisco, where he&rsquo;d played in the NAHL, and he had too many friends nearby. He began to drink heavily. He got addicted to chewing tobacco. He cheated on his wife. All that suppressed terror from his childhood made him want to kill the pain, and it was destroying his opportunities in hockey and hurting the people closest to him.</p><p>After the 2011-12 season, he reached a crucial crossroads. He chose recovery. He began intensive therapy, multiple times a week, including couples therapy with his wife. He unearthed buried memories from his childhood. He began to understand how the past was holding back his hockey future, making him timid, and why he was sabotaging all the relationships in his life with self-destructive behavior.</p><p>The choice to seek help saved Newton&rsquo;s career. Starting in 2012-13, he began to rise up the European ranks. He became a champion and league MVP in the Italian League. He made it to the Finnish Liiga, then the Czech Extraliga.</p><p>The off-ice healing was helping him on the ice. Still, not everything was right. He and his wife had two children, and the bouncing around from country to country made life difficult. Eventually, his wife gave him the ultimatum: come home with her and the kids, or stay in Europe by himself. Newton decided he had to maintain his best income source, so he stayed behind. He realized then he still wasn&rsquo;t at peace mentally yet. He began a path of self-discovery. He took up yoga, and he got hooked on a book about self-reflection and meditation called <i>The Untethered Soul</i> by Michael A. Singer. Newton started to explore a different way to deal with problems in his life: to not let them rule him emotionally, to understand that he had to be the source of his own happiness.</p><p>It worked. He achieved a level of self love he never thought he could. And now, playing in Norway, divorced from his wife, he feels the best he&rsquo;s ever felt about himself and the impact he has on his loved ones &ndash; including his kids. &ldquo;To be honest with you, I&rsquo;ve never been in a better place in my life,&rdquo; said Newton, now 31, during the 2019-20 season. &ldquo;And I say that as I&rsquo;m 5,000 miles away from my kids with the challenges that brings.&rdquo;</p><p>Newton devoted himself entirely to learning more about mental health, training his mind to react differently to life events beyond his control and becoming the source of his own fulfillment. &ldquo;We were never taught to look in the mirror and put all the responsibility on ourselves to love ourselves unconditionally,&rdquo; Newton said. &ldquo;We put the responsibility for our happiness on our partners or on our friends or on our parents. They&rsquo;re going to be able to do it every now and then, but if you don&rsquo;t have that on your own, if you haven&rsquo;t cultivated that yourself, you&rsquo;re going to continue to need these people around you to feel that inner happiness. If you can do it yourself, you don&rsquo;t <i>need</i> anybody. Now you <i>want</i> them because they amplify you, they maximize you.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/newton42/668894-1-eng-US/newton42.jpg" title="newton4" width="977" height="940"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>TAKING CHARGE</b></p><p>On the ice, Newton is a high-impact defenseman in Europe. Off the ice, he makes a difference in mental health.</p><span class="photo-credit">(TOP: PHOTO BY JIRI HALTTUNEN; BOTTOM: PHOTO COURTESY OF JAKE NEWTON)</span></figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/newton52/668887-1-eng-US/newton52.jpg" title="newton5" width="744" height="724"></div><p>He has since become a mental-health coach. Newton hosts a podcast called <i>RAV: Raw, Authentic and Vulnerable</i>, in which he discusses coping with the trauma of sexual abuse. He posts inspirational Instagram videos daily. He holds 1-on-1 sessions with people who are lost souls like he was &ndash; anyone from coaches looking to connect with their players to a retired secret-service agent.</p><p>He&rsquo;s had an effect on his own friends, too, like his close buddy Alex Miner Barron, a pro defenseman who grew up in California idolizing Newton, who was three years Barron&rsquo;s senior. The two met much later in life, and Miner Barron couldn&rsquo;t believe how different Newton was from the reputation that had followed him around in the past as someone who struggled with a party lifestyle. This version of Newton was strong, hardworking, disciplined and an open book who was at peace discussing all the problems he&rsquo;d overcome. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve honestly never met a guy that has faced more adversity than this guy,&rdquo; Miner Barron said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s mind-blowing season after season after season. Sometimes I just want to ask him, &lsquo;Jake, are you OK? Are you sure you&rsquo;re good? Dude, I&rsquo;ll fly out there, and then we&rsquo;ll hang out and just talk about it.&rsquo; But he&rsquo;s like, &lsquo;No, Alex, I&rsquo;m good.&rsquo; It&rsquo;s the internal changes that he&rsquo;s making. The best way to put it is, he&rsquo;s becoming a veteran in life.&rdquo;</p><p>Miner Barron describes Newton as an amazing and dedicated dad who becomes a little kid when he&rsquo;s around his son and daughter. He&rsquo;s constantly hilarious, Miner Barron adds, a sunny ball of energy, a guy who &ldquo;never wears a shirt for some reason&rdquo; and will call in the middle of the night just to catch up. &ldquo;He just operates on a whole other level,&rdquo; Miner Barron said. &ldquo;I think he wakes up at 3:30 or 4:00 in the morning. I&rsquo;m on the West Coast, so it&rsquo;s like 1:00 in the morning. He&rsquo;ll call me and say, &lsquo;What are you doing, buddy?&rsquo; &lsquo;I&rsquo;m sleeping, man. What about you?&rsquo; He goes, &lsquo;You know, just getting the day started. Meditated for about two hours already.&rdquo;</p><p>Newton taught Miner Barron a key lesson he still carries with him: a metaphor describing the catastrophic events in one&rsquo;s life as cars on a train. It goes: if you try to involve yourself, or hop onto the moving train, you&rsquo;re going to get hurt. So you&rsquo;re better off being a stoic bystander, watching the cars fly by, waiting to react when the time is right. Miner Barron used lesson that to get through a tough year in the German DEL&rsquo;s second tier in which he didn&rsquo;t feel like he was meshing with his team.</p><p>Having learned to love himself and process everything in his life differently, Newton has been able to revisit his nightmarish childhood. He still has pause whenever he has to leave his kids with a babysitter, but he&rsquo;s working on building up more trust in other people. He speaks about his former tormentor with a degree of forgiveness. There was &ldquo;some interaction&rdquo; years back, Newton explains, a negative encounter after his ex-wife reached out to the cousin, but Newton has changed so much since then that he&rsquo;d be open to a do-over. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got images in my mind, I&rsquo;ve got sights, I&rsquo;ve got sounds, I&rsquo;ve got taste, all right here,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But I can think about all those things. I can have all of them right here in my mind, and there&rsquo;s no emotional trigger that follows. There&rsquo;s no pain. There&rsquo;s no sadness. There&rsquo;s no anger.</p><p>&ldquo;All I think about when I think about him is, I&rsquo;d love to meet him today. Give him a hug, shake his hand and have a conversation with him. Not from a place of resentment whatsoever, but from pure curiosity of wanting to know how he&rsquo;s doing, because it also happened to him. He was sexually abused himself. And so, through that, I know he was in pain as well. Even though he may have known what he was doing to me was wrong, he probably viewed it as normal behavior, because it was something that was done to him, and most likely the person who did it to him had it done to them.&rdquo;</p><p>Newton endured a hell few people can ever imagine. Now he&rsquo;s reached a level of enlightenment and forgiveness few people could ever achieve. He spent a life feeling like the weakest person every time he stepped on the ice. Now Newton is the strongest person, inside and out, wherever he goes.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

newton1

Jake Newton

OUT OF THE DARKNESS, INTO THE LIGHT

leavold1

Brady Leavold

Road To Recovery

<div class="byline">BY ALAN BASS</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="flyers1" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/flyers12/669075-1-eng-US/flyers12.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>VETERAN INFLUENCE</b></p><p>Vigneault, left, didn&rsquo;t hesitate to bring in former NHL head coaches Yeo and Therrien as his assistants.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(ZACK HILL/PHILADELPHIA FLYERS)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>A</span>FTER MISSING THE</b> playoffs for the third time in five seasons, Philadelphia Flyers GM Chuck Fletcher moved quickly to name Alain Vigneault as the team&rsquo;s new coach last April. When Vigneault decided to add two veterans, Michel Therrien and Mike Yeo, to his staff as assistants, it created one of the most experienced bench trios in history. No current coaching staff comes close to the 2,500-plus games head-coached amongst them. And it was working. The Flyers were red-hot when the season was put on pause and looked like a good bet to make it past the first round of the playoffs for the first time since 2012. We sat down with Vigneault, Therrien and Yeo to talk about their unique situation and how it helped the Flyers return to the playoff picture.</p><p><i>The hockey world was initially curious, if not skeptical, about having three head coaches behind the same NHL bench. Why would a head coach want two potential head coaches next to him? Why would potential head coaches take assistant jobs? The hypothetical risks seemed to outweigh the benefits. But Vigneault had been here before.</i></p><p><b>VIGNEAULT:</b> I didn&rsquo;t know exactly what we had with this team, but I had an idea there were veteran guys and young guys coming together. I felt we needed experience coaching them. Both Mikes were in Pittsburgh when the Penguins were building. They had a lot of young players. I was in Vancouver when the (Ryan) Keslers, the (Kevin) Bieksas and the (Sedin) twins were growing. I felt that experience would be beneficial for the young guys here and beneficial for the older guys. A lot of people asked me, &ldquo;Two head coaches? Aren&rsquo;t you nervous?&rdquo; If you look at my track record, I believe that experience and coaching experience, as the guy in charge, you need that. These guys, they&rsquo;ve been there, they understand how I feel. They know the pressure, what&rsquo;s coming. They can help me out, and they do quite a bit.</p><p><i>Therrien had been unemployed since 2017. Yeo was fired in November 2018 as coach of the St. Louis Blues and watched his former team lift the Stanley Cup months later. Each of them could have waited for a head-coaching job to open up. But something, or rather someone, pulled them toward the assistant positions in Philadelphia.</i></p><p><b>THERRIEN:</b> For me, it&rsquo;s because of A.V. I&rsquo;ve always been a head coach, but the No. 1 reason, it&rsquo;s a new role for me, it&rsquo;s because I have a good relationship with A.V., as friends. I&rsquo;ve known him for a long time, we&rsquo;ve built our relationship. We kind of worked together when we started in Montreal (in 1997). But we built that relationship and we competed against each other. I know what kind of coach he is. I know what kind of philosophy.</p><p><b>YEO:</b> I had some time off last year <i>(laughs)</i>. And when that was going on, I really missed the game. But you also don&rsquo;t want to just jump into the first opportunity. You look at A.V.&rsquo;s track record and that part of it was an easy decision for me. You want to go somewhere where you can work with people and have success and work with a team where you can have success. You look at this team, we felt there were some pieces there where we could hopefully turn things around quickly.</p><p><i>In a league where the average age of a head coach is 52 and falling, Vigneault (59) and Therrien (56) represent the old guard. But you&rsquo;d never know it from listening to them talk about the game.</i></p><p><b>VIGNEAULT:</b> I don&rsquo;t believe you can stay in this game if you&rsquo;re not on top of whatever&rsquo;s out there, whether it be science, whether it be technical in hockey. I think that&rsquo;s one of the reasons why I&rsquo;ve been able to stay in the game. Be proactive in all those areas. I know that I&rsquo;m one of the more experienced in the league, but I don&rsquo;t feel any older than I did 10 years ago when I was coaching in Vancouver. I do the same things, I work out the same way. Other than a few grey hairs and less on the side, I feel the same mentally. And working with the young players today, for me, is fun. These guys want to learn, they&rsquo;re good, and they want to be coached.</p><p><b>THERRIEN:</b> It&rsquo;s like in life. You have to be able to adjust to the new generation. It&rsquo;s no different in our game. We have to be open to new things. We&rsquo;ve got a lot of stuff we didn&rsquo;t have 20 years ago that makes us better coaches. Experience is really important, but all the little things we add from the outside and from the experience that we&rsquo;ve got, make us better coaches, a better person, and it helps. And it&rsquo;s still a process, this is what&rsquo;s fun about this game. You&rsquo;re still learning, learning by sharing experience.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/flyers32/669061-1-eng-US/flyers32.jpg" title="flyers3" width="1170" height="808"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>FRIENDLY FOES</b></p><p>The three coaches used to go head to head on opposing teams. Now they&rsquo;re all pulling together in Philadelphia.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(ANDY LEWIS/ICON SPORTSWIRE VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/flyers52/669054-1-eng-US/flyers52.jpg" title="flyers5" width="1562" height="1145"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(LEN REDKOLES/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>YEO:</b> Win or tie, we&rsquo;re with you.</p><p><i>(All laugh.)</i></p><p><b>THERRIEN:</b> That&rsquo;s my line. Win or tie.</p><p><i>On top of their responsibilities in Philadelphia, the three coaches have a variety of intriguing opinions on the game itself. Having been around the block more than once, they see positives and negatives in the current state of the sport, such as the benefits of analytics.</i></p><p><b>YEO:</b> Analytics are a tool, they&rsquo;re an asset. They&rsquo;re something that help you make decisions. But they&rsquo;re not something you should (solely base your) decisions on.</p><p><b>VIGNEAULT:</b> They&rsquo;re good. You just have to use them in the right way.</p><p><i>What rule would they change if they could?</i></p><p><b>VIGNEAULT:</b> I&rsquo;m not crazy about the unintentional puck over the glass.</p><p><b>YEO:</b> Two-line pass. I&rsquo;m just throwing that out there. But I think it would force more situations where you would have to carry the puck through the neutral zone, instead of wrapping it up the boards. When you do that, you&rsquo;re either going to be effective getting through the neutral zone, which would lead to more offense, or it would lead to more turnovers, which would in turn lead to more offense.</p><p><b>THERRIEN:</b> It&rsquo;s a new rule this year, when you&rsquo;re on the power play and you can decide which side to go (for the faceoff). When we start the period, sometimes you&rsquo;re on the power play, and you still could use that edge. You&rsquo;re doing that to try to score more goals. Instead of having the faceoff at center ice, if you&rsquo;re on the power play, why not take advantage of it?</p><p><i>What about knowing when to switch goalies mid-game?</i></p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/flyers22/669047-1-eng-US/flyers22.jpg" title="flyers2" width="2111" height="1738"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>TALKING POINTS</b></p><p>One of the benefits of three veteran coaches on the same staff: figuring out what&rsquo;s a priority &ndash; and what isn&rsquo;t.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(ZACK HILL/PHILADELPHIA FLYERS)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>VIGNEAULT:</b> There are two times. Sometimes the goals aren&rsquo;t his fault but you want to change the momentum a little bit. Sometimes you see he&rsquo;s off and want to make the change. Some nights, when you&rsquo;ve coached as many games as we have, you see someone is off. If pucks are going through him, it&rsquo;s time <i>(laughs)</i>.</p><p><i>One of the more difficult things for the coaching staff is finding enough time to practice during the busy season.</i></p><p><b>VIGNEAULT:</b> You don&rsquo;t practice much <i>(laughs)</i>. The way the schedule is, and the break, you&rsquo;re lucky if you get one good practice every two weeks, a real practice, where you&rsquo;re spending a little bit of time on the ice. It&rsquo;s just the way the NHL is now. Most of your teaching is done during training camp and in video sessions.</p><p><b>YEO:</b> And I think that&rsquo;s where experience comes in, too. Sometimes you get caught up and see what&rsquo;s wrong with your game and want to fix everything, and having that experience is helpful that you can&rsquo;t fix everything, because if you do then your group is going to be too tired to play or perform.</p><p><b>VIGNEAULT:</b> That&rsquo;s one of the things the three of us know. Some days you have a wish list of eight things we need, and by talking to one another we narrow it down. We know we need to focus on these two things. Let&rsquo;s do these two things better. That&rsquo;s where experience helps. Narrow it and get them to focus on the right things.</p><p><i>Philadelphia sports fans are notoriously tough and</i>&nbsp;<i>demanding of their players and coaches. The city likes coaches who show as much passion as the fans. With Vigneault, Therrien and Yeo, the Flyers have three coaches who aren&rsquo;t afraid to tell it like it is.</i></p><p><b>VIGNEAULT:</b> I&rsquo;m just trying to be myself. Some people might say direct or critical, but I&rsquo;m just stating facts. If a guy&rsquo;s playing a certain way, I&rsquo;m stating those facts. Obviously, we talk to the players, and there&rsquo;s nothing we say to the media or to the fans that we haven&rsquo;t told the players before. We try to be as direct as we can, as specific as we can, so they can have success. If they play well, the team wins.</p><p><b>YEO:</b> You have to be yourself. As soon as you&rsquo;re not, the players see through that. We&rsquo;re three very competitive people. We hate to lose. So that&rsquo;s going to bring out some positive emotion, that&rsquo;s going to bring out some negative emotion. Ultimately, it&rsquo;s part of our job. Players need to know we&rsquo;re here to win hockey games. As a group we&rsquo;ve seen a lot of things that we know when not to overreact. But at the same time we&rsquo;re pretty direct and we&rsquo;re an open book with the players.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/flyers42/669040-1-eng-US/flyers42.jpg" title="flyers4" width="2114" height="1308"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>ADAM PATTERSON, KIM DILLABAUGH, MIKE YEO, MICHEL THERRIEN, ALAIN VIGNEAULT, IAN LAPERRIERE & VINNY YULA</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(LEN REDKOLES/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>THERRIEN:</b> We all have different personalities. We like to be around each other. But like Yeo said, we&rsquo;re here to win. We have a job to do. Our job is to try and bring a Stanley Cup to Philly.</p><p><b>VIGNEAULT:</b> That&rsquo;s why we&rsquo;re in the business.</p><p><b>THERRIEN:</b> The No. 1 reason.</p><p><b>VIGNEAULT:</b> I have a good feel for how to work with these guys and show them the respect they deserve, because they&rsquo;ve been in my seat. When I hired (Therrien), a lot of people questioned it. First and foremost, I know his hockey knowledge. I wanted that hockey knowledge. Second, everybody saw the head coach, but I knew the guy. I knew that if I could sit him in that chair, even if it was an assistant chair, that guy would come out and that&rsquo;s what we got. A great hockey mind. And it&rsquo;s a good fit.</p><p><b>YEO:</b> I&rsquo;ll say A.V. makes it easy.</p><p><b>VIGNEAULT:</b> Because they do all the work!</p><p><b>YEO:</b> Every day we come to the rink, you feel like you have a voice, like your opinion matters. He gives us lots of opportunities to do our own little things, which is important. At the end of the day, we&rsquo;re going to come to the table with different ideas. If A.V. says, &ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to go with (Therrien&rsquo;s) idea,&rdquo; it&rsquo;s easy for me to take because look at how successful he&rsquo;s been as a head coach. I&rsquo;m learning from two great guys every day I come to the rink. We&rsquo;re surrounded by guys who have had a lot of success and are very competent, so it&rsquo;s a fun atmosphere.</p><p><i>Ultimately, the coaches have created a calm environment for their players. Their collective experience makes most scenarios easier to handle. They&rsquo;ve seen nearly everything before, in some fashion. It keeps the focus on the bigger picture, rather than the inevitable minor conflicts that arise in any workplace.</i></p><p><b>VIGNEAULT:</b> Now a situation comes up, an interaction, a situation on the ice, a relationship with a player or a staff member, and your experience helps you recognize it quicker. You&rsquo;ve had experiences based on how you&rsquo;ve dealt with it before.</p><p><b>THERRIEN:</b> With the refs, too.</p><p><b>YEO:</b> It could be in the game, it could be off the ice, there&rsquo;s not too much that we haven&rsquo;t seen.</p><p><b>VIGNEAULT:</b> One thing&hellip;the Stanley Cup!<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

flyers1

Flyers coaches

THREE-HEADED COACHING MONSTER

Shattucks_Sumner1

SHATTUCK-ST. MARY’S

Hockey Hot house in the corn belt

<div class="byline">BY THE HOCKEY NEWS STAFF</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="feelgood_op_028" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/feelgood_op_0282/669599-1-eng-US/feelgood_op_0282.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>FROM LEFT: TRAVIS KONECNY, NEAL PIONK, ALEX OVECHKIN, DAVID PASTRNAK, DAVID AYRES & BOBBY RYAN</b></p><p></p> <span class="photo-credit">(PHOTOS BY USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><h4><b>&gt;ANAHEIM DUCKS</b></h4><p class="dropcap"><span>I</span>t looked as though David Backes had seen the backside of the NHL. Boston waived him and his large salary to the AHL in January. But the Bruins were able to trade Backes, a first-round pick and a prospect to Anaheim to free up cap space. With the Ducks, Backes, 35, was back playing a two-way game for a rebuilding team and offering guidance to young players. His Corsi For/60 and goals above replacement over the past four years rank him first among Duck forwards.</p><h4><b>&gt;</b><b>ARIZONA COYOTES</b></h4><p>The Coyotes are one of four NHL teams to join forces with National Assistance Dogs Inc. in order train a puppy this season. Luna was being trained for obedience, socialization and etiquette and spent most of her time in the Coyotes&rsquo; office and at home games &ndash; even practices and team events. At the end of the season, she will be given to a military veteran with mobility or post-traumatic challenges.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/feelgood_lu_0302/669578-1-eng-US/feelgood_lu_0302.jpg" title="feelgood_lu_030" width="468" height="759"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>&lsquo;LUNA&rsquo; THE DOG</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(PHOTO COURTESY OF ARIZONA COYOTES)</span></figcaption></div><h4><b>&gt;</b><b>BOSTON BRUINS</b></h4><p>Even if he never gets to finish it, David Pastrnak delivered a memorable season in Boston. His 48 goals were the most by any Bruins player since Cam Neely potted 50 in 1993-94. Pastrnak also recorded four hat tricks. The only other Bruins to post four or more hat tricks in a season are Phil Esposito and Bobby Orr.</p><h4><b>&gt;</b><b>BUFFALO SABRES</b></h4><p>The Sabres celebrated their 50th season in 2019-20. Amazingly, one employee has been with Buffalo for all 50: equipment manager Rip Simonick. Not only has he carried the unofficial title of &ldquo;original Sabre&rdquo; since Game 1, but he was already working in the AHL as a stick boy for the Buffalo Bisons when Buffalo was awarded an NHL franchise, so his tenure in Buffalo hockey actually predates the Sabres.</p><h4><b>&gt;</b><b>CALGARY FLAMES</b></h4><p>What started out as devastatingly bad news has shifted towards inspirational. Flames assistant GM Chris Snow revealed in December that he has ALS, a motor neuron disease for which there is no known cure. But Snow and wife Kelsie went on the offensive, enrolling in a clinical drug trial of a gene-therapy treatment and results after several months have been encouraging. The couple has also become advocates in getting the hockey community to help with the research and treatment of the disease.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/feelgood_sn_0352/669550-1-eng-US/feelgood_sn_0352.jpg" title="feelgood_sn_035" width="1017" height="557"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>CHRIS SNOW</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(CANDICE WARD/CALGARY FLAMES)</span></figcaption></div><h4><b>&gt;</b><b>CAROLINA HURRICANES</b></h4><p>In a crucial game with both goalies injured, the Hurricanes found a new folk hero in emergency backup goalie David Ayres. The 42-year-old, who sometimes stands in at Maple Leafs practices, helped Carolina beat Toronto, then embarked on a massive media tour that included appearances on <i>The Late Show with Stephen Colbert</i> and <i>The Today Show</i>.</p><h4><b>&gt;</b><b>CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS</b></h4><p>It was a 2019 deal that barely caused a ripple at the time, but when the Blackhawks traded a fifth-round pick for Dominik Kubalik in January, it turned out to be a steal. The seventh-rounder in 2013 not only scored 30 goals, but few players did more with less. Kubalik piled up his goal total despite getting fewer than 15 minutes of ice time per game.</p><h4><b>&gt;</b><b>COLORADO AVALANCHE</b></h4><p>Avs fans must have been wondering what GM Joe Sakic was thinking when he signed Valeri Nichushkin to a one-year deal as a free agent last summer. With zero goals in 57 games with Dallas last season, it certainly wasn&rsquo;t to provide offense. But with 13 goals when the league shut down, Nichushkin gave the Avalanche a reliable bottom-six forward who can kill penalties and chip in offensively.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/feelgood_me_0332/669522-1-eng-US/feelgood_me_0332.jpg" title="feelgood_me_033" width="1019" height="683"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>NICK FOLIGNO & ELVIS MERZLIKINS</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(GREG M. COOPER-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><h4><b>&gt;</b><b>COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS</b></h4><p>With Sergei Bobrovsky gone, the Blue Jackets needed netminding &ndash; and got it in spades. Elvis Merzlikins, the brash Latvian rookie, may have been the biggest surprise, especially since he had to follow up a great early run by Joonas Korpisalo. At one point, Merzlikins posted three shutouts in a four-game span. For his efforts, Merzlikins earned a two-year, $8-million contract extension in late April.</p><h4><b>&gt;</b><b>DALLAS STARS</b></h4><p>By the time defenseman Stephen Johns stepped on the ice Jan. 18 for a game against Minnesota, he had missed almost 22 months of NHL action with concussion symptoms. When he scored a goal two weeks later, it marked almost two years since he had last found the back of the net. After missing all of 2018-19, Johns was back on the Stars blueline averaging more than 17 minutes a game.</p><h4><b>&gt;</b><b>DETROIT RED WINGS</b></h4><p>The Red Wings&rsquo; .275 points percentage as of the March 12 shutdown was the lowest by any NHL team since the 1999-2000 Atlanta Thrashers. Detroit won 17 of 71 games. How, then, did it manage to beat first-overall Boston twice? The first win was legit, but the second came on an afternoon in which the Wings got outshot 40-20, with goalie Jonathan Bernier stealing the game.</p><h4><b>&gt;</b><b>EDMONTON OILERS</b></h4><p>Oilers fans could be excused if they were starting to rub their temples, wondering whether Kailer Yamamoto was the next in a line of Edmonton first-round picks who went bust rather than busting out. The 22nd overall pick in 2017 was playing well during his second season in the AHL but not dominating. Yamamoto was recalled and played his first NHL game of the season on the last day of 2019. He&rsquo;s produced at a near point-per-game pace ever since. In fact, he&rsquo;s 39th in NHL scoring since then.</p><h4><b>&gt;</b><b>FLORIDA PANTHERS</b></h4><p>Days before the NHL shuttered its doors, the Panthers retired a player number for the first time in franchise history, floating goalie Roberto Luongo&rsquo;s No. 1 to the rafters. Not only is he Florida&rsquo;s all-time leader in wins, saves, minutes and shutouts, but he also established himself as a key community ambassador there, particularly through his passionate support for the victims of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas school shooting in 2018.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/feelgood_lu_0312/669480-1-eng-US/feelgood_lu_0312.jpg" title="feelgood_lu_031" width="468" height="866"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(STEVE MITCHELL-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><h4><b>&gt;</b><b>LOS ANGELES KINGS</b></h4><p>There was no bidding war for the services of undrafted 22-year-old free agent defenseman Sean Walker when his fourth season at Bowling Green came to an end in 2017. So he signed a two-year AHL deal to play in the Los Angeles system. The Kings ripped up the deal after Year 1 and signed him to an NHL contract. A year later, the fleet-footed Walker has emerged as a top-four defender on the Kings blueline.</p><h4><b>&gt;</b><b>MINNESOTA WILD</b></h4><p>After two decades of slugging it out as a head coach in major junior and the minors and an assistant in the NHL, Dean Evason finally took over his own bench when the Wild fired Bruce Boudreau in mid-February. Evason led the Wild to an impressive 8-4-0 record and back into the thick of the playoff race in the Central Division when play was halted.</p><h4><b>&gt;</b><b>MONTREAL</b>&nbsp;<b>CANADIENS</b></h4><p>How bad was Victor Mete&rsquo;s career-opening goal drought? At 126 games, it lasted long enough to set a record for a 102-year-old franchise. Mete finally beat Wild netminder Alex Stalock with a glove-side shot for goal No. 1 on Oct. 17. It was the 12th-longest drought to open a career in NHL history. David Hale holds the record at 230 goal-less games.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/feelgood_me_0322/669452-1-eng-US/feelgood_me_0322.jpg" title="feelgood_me_032" width="469" height="641"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>VICTOR METE</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(ERIC BOLTE-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><h4><b>&gt;</b><b>NASHVILLE PREDATORS</b></h4><p>At 5-foot-6 and 180 pounds, Rocco Grimaldi is one of the smallest players in the NHL. After failing to stick with Florida and Colorado, he found a home in Nashville and obliterated his career highs in all offensive categories. Even better, he earned a sense of security when the Predators signed him to a two-year, $4-million contract extension.</p><h4><b>&gt;</b><b>NEW JERSEY DEVILS</b></h4><p>It&rsquo;s not easy to find a silver lining to the Devils&rsquo; 2019-20 campaign, but the play of rookie goalie Mackenzie Blackwood qualifies. Filling a tremendous void in New Jersey, Blackwood had a respectable .915 save percentage and took hold of the starter&rsquo;s reins.</p><h4><b>&gt;</b><b>NEW YORK ISLANDERS</b></h4><p>The Isles made a splash at the trade deadline by grabbing highly coveted pivot Jean-Gabriel Pageau from Ottawa. The versatile center then immediately endeared himself to the Long Island faithful by getting into a fight against the rival Rangers.</p><h4><b>&gt;</b><b>NEW YORK RANGERS</b></h4><p>Heading into the season, Rangers fans were excited about the team&rsquo;s high-profile youngsters, but Tony DeAngelo stole some thunder by annihilating his previous career highs and leading the Blueshirts blueline with 15 goals and 53 points in 68 games.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/feelgood_ry_0292/669417-1-eng-US/feelgood_ry_0292.jpg" title="feelgood_ry_029" width="1018" height="848"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>JOSH NORRIS, BOBBY RYAN & BRADY TKACHUK</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(MARC DESROSIERS-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><h4><b>&gt;</b><b>OTTAWA SENATORS</b></h4><p>Of all the feel-good stories league-wide in 2019-20, it&rsquo;s tough to top Bobby Ryan&rsquo;s. In his first home game back after missing more than three months to combat his alcohol abuse, he scored a hat trick. The Ottawa crowd gave him a standing ovation as he sat down on the bench, fighting back tears.</p><h4><b>&gt;</b><b>PHILADELPHIA FLYERS</b></h4><p>For years, Claude Giroux carried the Flyers&rsquo; offense, but there&rsquo;s a new top gun in town, and it&rsquo;s scrappy scorer Travis Konecny. Undersized but never outworked, Konecny led the Flyers in scoring with 61 points in 66 games.</p><h4><b>&gt;</b><b>PITTSBURGH PENGUINS</b></h4><p>During a campaign riddled with significant injuries, Pittsburgh managed to thrive with a large assist from netminder Tristan Jarry. When starter Matt Murray struggled, Jarry stepped in to pick up the slack, posting some of the best numbers in the NHL.</p><h4><b>&gt;</b><b>SAN JOSE SHARKS</b></h4><p>Marc-Edouard Vlasic had media in stitches in the post-game scrum after his 1,000th game. He told reporters he was expecting an extra-special gift from his teammates for being the first Sharks D-man to hit the milestone. &lsquo;Pickles&rsquo; added that the game puck he picked up was for coach Bob Boughner&rsquo;s first win. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll just pick up a random puck and say it was my 1,000th game. No one will know the difference.&rdquo;</p><h4><b>&gt;</b><b>ST. LOUIS BLUES</b></h4><p>When the Blues hosted the All-Star Game in late January, it was a genuine celebration for the franchise and fans that had suffered through more than 50 years of futility until last season. Few franchises and fan bases deserved the recognition and party more than the Blues. Being in second place overall when the league shut down also showed last season was not a one-off.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/feelgood_as_0342/669375-1-eng-US/feelgood_as_0342.jpg" title="feelgood_as_034" width="1020" height="702"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>2020 NHL ALL-STAR GAME</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(JEFF CURRY-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><h4><b>&gt;</b><b>TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING</b></h4><p>Following last spring&rsquo;s humiliating first-round defeat, it was heartening for Tampa Bay&rsquo;s fan base to see GM Julien BriseBois go all-in leading up to the trade deadline. He sacrificed a pair of first-round picks to bring in bruising wingers Blake Coleman and Barclay Goodrow. Maybe BriseBois overpaid, but he sent a clear message: Stanley Cup or bust.</p><h4><b>&gt;</b><b>TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS</b></h4><p>Only in Toronto can an innocuous comment about liking soup lead to an endorsement deal. In an early-season interview, Russian rookie Ilya Mikheyev, navigating a language barrier, spoke of his love for soup and didn&rsquo;t understand why it wasn&rsquo;t more popular in Canada. By late February, Campbell Canada had named Mikheyev its Chief Soup Officer.</p><h4><b>&gt;</b><b>VANCOUVER CANUCKS</b></h4><p>The 50th anniversary of the franchise and the number retirement ceremony for Daniel and Henrik Sedin happened fittingly in the same season. Former teammate Kevin Bieksa had a tribute speech focused on &lsquo;Sedinery,&rsquo; the sixth sense of no-look passes they shared, but he also roasted the twins by revealing that they always knew where the other was on the ice because they wore an earpiece.</p><h4><b>&gt;</b><b>VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS</b></h4><p>Center Gage Quinney became the first player born in Nevada to play in the NHL, versus Florida on Feb. 22. The 24-year-old Las Vegas native played nine minutes and had one shot. &ldquo;The heart was really racing today,&rdquo; he said after the game. Quinney&rsquo;s father, Ken, was a Quebec draft pick who played five seasons for the IHL&rsquo;s Las Vegas Thunder.</p><h4><b>&gt;</b><b>WASHINGTON CAPITALS</b></h4><p>He&rsquo;s the greatest goal-scorer of his era, and his recent heroics legitimately started a debate on whether Alex Ovechkin is the greatest goal-scorer of all-time. The Capitals captain hit the 700 mark, and while he&rsquo;s got some work to do, catching Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s record of 894 is very much a possibility.</p><h4><b>&gt;</b><b>WINNIPEG JETS</b></h4><p>When the Jets finally traded Jacob Trouba last summer, fans learned of the return and unanimously asked &ldquo;Neal Who?&rdquo; (A lot of them may have also inserted an unprintable descriptor in the middle of that question.) They were not asking that for long, however. Pionk stepped up on a blueline that had been ravaged by departures, leading Winnipeg D-men in scoring and ice time.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

feelgood_op_028

NHL TEAM REPORTS

31 Reasons To Smile

<div class="byline">BY JARED CLINTON</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="womens_camp_001" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/womens_camp_0012/669665-1-eng-US/womens_camp_0012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>LOST OPPORTUNITY</b></p><p>Campbell and her Wisconsin teammates were denied the chance to repeat as NCAA champions.</p><p></p> <span class="photo-credit">(KAI MARTIN/WISCONSIN BADGERS)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>K</span>RISTEN CAMPBELL</b> shouldn&rsquo;t know what it&rsquo;s like to lose a season, to see everything come to an abrupt halt, to be left wondering what comes next. But it&rsquo;s a situation with which she&rsquo;s all too familiar.</p><p>It was nearly three years ago, following the completion of her freshman season at North Dakota, that the program was swiftly and suddenly shut down. She was left without a place to play and without a proper ending to her time at UND. And in mid-March, Campbell found out that it was happening all over again. Amid the COVID-19 outbreak, the NCAA announced the cancellation of remaining winter and spring championships, including the women&rsquo;s and men&rsquo;s Frozen Four tournaments.</p><p>After three years at Wisconsin, the unthinkable had happened, and a collegiate career that began with one program ending was about to culminate with a cancelled campaign. &ldquo;You look back on everything you&rsquo;ve been through, and I was like, &lsquo;I feel like I&rsquo;ve been here before,&rsquo;&rdquo; Campbell said. &ldquo;But I also feel like I knew how to deal with it.&rdquo;</p><p>That&rsquo;s why after an emotional hour spent in the dressing room with her teammates, Campbell thought back to that time following her freshman season, what she and her teammates did in the moments that followed their discovery that the program was no more, and she leaned on that experience. And that led to a suggestion.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/womens_camp_0042/669651-1-eng-US/womens_camp_0042.jpg" title="womens_camp_004" width="472" height="608"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>KRISTEN CAMPBELL</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(DAVID STLUKA/WISCONSIN BADGERS)</span></figcaption></div><p>When she and her UND teammates learned of their program&rsquo;s fate, they took to the ice. So, Campbell suggested she and her fellow Badgers do the same. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the best escape from anything that you can&rsquo;t control,&rdquo; Campbell said.</p><p>But a simple skate turned into much more. The seniors lined up against the freshmen, juniors and sophomores in a full-team scrimmage, with Campbell tending goal for the No. 2-ranked Badgers one last time. Coaches took to the benches, the goal horn was at full volume and the national championship trophy even made an appearance.</p><p>The defending champions had it stationed on the bench and brought it out on the ice once the scrimmage was over.</p><p>Who hoisted it? &ldquo;The seniors won in dramatic fashion,&rdquo; Campbell laughed. &ldquo;One of our best forwards played goalie for the other team, so I actually got to score a goal, which was pretty fun. I took the puck end to end, so it was kind of crazy. But I guess I can say I scored a goal in LaBahn (Arena) now&hellip;&rdquo;</p><p>If it seems as though Campbell is taking this all in stride, it&rsquo;s because, for the most part, she is. Again, that&rsquo;s the value of experience with a disappointment of similar magnitude. But don&rsquo;t take that to mean these situations are one and the same.</p><p>Different this time around is that there is no next season, no colleges calling her up to come step into their crease. Campbell does intend, however, to continue her career. She&rsquo;s been in the Hockey Canada system since she was a teenager and won silver with the program at the world under-18s in 2014-15. She&rsquo;s also kept her eye on the Professional Women&rsquo;s Hockey Players&rsquo; Association and hopes she can be situated somewhere next season.</p><p>Even if it&rsquo;s not through hockey, Campbell has confidence that each of her teammates will be able to rise above this disappointment. &ldquo;I know everyone&rsquo;s going to come out stronger from it,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been through something like this before, and it turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me. Even though this is a different situation, I really don&rsquo;t see it as the end for any of us, whether it&rsquo;s girls who want to go on and play professional hockey or girls that want to be done with hockey and go on to have successful careers in life. I think if anything, this is going to make us stronger people and closer as a team. We&rsquo;ll all be able to get through it together.&rdquo;</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">OF COURSE WE WANTED TO GO BACK-TO-BACK, BUT EVEN THOUGH WE DIDN&rsquo;T GET TO WRITE THAT ENDING, <b>WE STILL HAVE EVERYTHING WE GOT TO WRITE</b><br>&ndash; Kristen Campbell</blockquote><p>Campbell is also confident the team can come together again, at some point down the line, for another send-off, this one more proper than an empty-arena celebration in front of teammates and coaches. Hey, maybe it&rsquo;ll be in nine years when they celebrate the 10th anniversary of their 2019 national crown.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/womens_camp_0022/669630-1-eng-US/womens_camp_0022.jpg" title="womens_camp_002" width="1015" height="971"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>EMOTIONAL FINALE</b></p><p>Instead of vying for glory in the Frozen Four, the Badgers hit the ice for one last intrasquad scrimmage.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(PHOTO COURTESY OF KRISTEN CAMPBELL)</span></figcaption></div><p>Of course, some will suggest one of the greater disappointments of the cancelled season is that Campbell and Co. won&rsquo;t have the opportunity to see this campaign through and return to Wisconsin for a 10-year reunion as two-time champions.</p><p>But Campbell doesn&rsquo;t see it that way. &ldquo;I kept hearing the seniors say, &lsquo;I just wish we had one more game.&rsquo; And I think that&rsquo;s what it comes down to, all throughout this, every game we played, you look back on all the memories,&rdquo; Campbell said. &ldquo;And of course we wanted to go back-to-back, and that&rsquo;s something that was talked about this entire season, but even though we didn&rsquo;t get to write the ending, we still have everything we got to write.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

womens_camp_001

WOMEN’S HOCKEY

SUDDEN ENDING ALL OVER AGAIN

<div class="byline">BY RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="next_raymon_053" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/next_raymon_0532/669703-1-eng-US/next_raymon_0532.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>GOTHENBURG HERO</b></p><p>Wearing the red and green colors of Frolunda in his hometown has been a dream come true for Raymond.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(TOMMY HOLL)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>IT&rsquo;S BEEN A TALE</b> of two seasons for the &lsquo;Terror Twins,&rsquo; Sweden&rsquo;s top prospects for the 2020 NHL draft.</p><p>While both right wingers Lucas Raymond and Alexander Holtz helped the national team take bronze at the world juniors, only Holtz found a regular role domestically, as one of the SHL&rsquo;s top junior-aged scorers with Djurgarden. Raymond, meanwhile, suited up for a Frolunda squad that featured some of the SHL&rsquo;s most prominent veteran forwards. So Raymond&rsquo;s SHL role wasn&rsquo;t as prominent, and the youngster spent more time down in Sweden&rsquo;s junior league.</p><p>Having said that, NHL talent hawks still love Raymond&rsquo;s game, and there&rsquo;s a very good chance he gets taken before Holtz in June. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s tough to get into the lineup there, so it&rsquo;s hard for him to excel,&rdquo; said one scout. &ldquo;But he&rsquo;s making the most of it when he gets the chance. He&rsquo;s working hard.&rdquo;</p><p>The fact Raymond had a great WJC also helps his case. The scintillating skater has so many dynamic elements to his game, and he was able to show them off in the Czech Republic, notching four points in seven games. At last year&rsquo;s world under-18s, Raymond scored the overtime golden goal on home ice in Ornskoldsvik.</p><p>Raymond and Holtz have impressed the national brass on a regular basis. &ldquo;We knew they were really talented and skilled,&rdquo; said Sweden&rsquo;s WJC coach Tomas Monten. &ldquo;They work really hard. They skate, and they&rsquo;re not afraid of playing in the dirty areas.&rdquo;</p><p>Earning a bigger role on Frolunda is the next step for Raymond, but he has been happy to test his skills against older competition so far. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s huge to play against men because of the speed and the structure compared to junior,&rdquo; Raymond said. &ldquo;You mature a lot as a player.&rdquo;</p><p>For a kid born and raised in Gothenburg, wearing the red and green of home side Frolunda is as good as it gets. &ldquo;I went to a lot of games as a kid,&rdquo; Raymond said. &ldquo;There are a lot of pictures of me falling asleep during games. I&rsquo;ve always been a Frolunda fan and always played for Frolunda.&rdquo;</p><p>While scouts believe Raymond needs to put parts of his game together in order to succeed at the next level, they have no doubt he has the skills and drive to do it. He&rsquo;s projected to be an elite point-producer when he fully matures.</p><p>As it is, Raymond has played against men for parts of two seasons, having made his SHL debut in 2018-19 when he got into 10 games with Frolunda. It may be hard to shed the only club team uniform he&rsquo;s ever worn, but given that Raymond will likely be a lottery pick at this year&rsquo;s NHL draft, he should prepare to do so in the near future.</p><div class="sidebar"><h4 align="center">For daily Prospect coverage, visit</h4><h3 align="center"><b><a href="http://TheHockeyNews.com">TheHockeyNews.com</a></b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></h3></div>

next_raymon_053

SINGLING OUT A ‘TERROR TWIN’

<div class="byline">BY DAVID FOOT</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="next_norris_057" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/next_norris_0572/669741-1-eng-US/next_norris_0572.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>FIRST IMPRESSION</b></p><p>Norris turned heads with his stellar rookie pro season, leading AHL freshmen in goals and points.</p><p></p> <span class="photo-credit">(PHOTO BY JASON SCOURSE)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>T</span>HE JUMP FROM NCAA</b> to the pros is not an easy one, but former Michigan Wolverine Josh Norris has made it look that way &ndash; although he might not admit it.</p><p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s come easy,&rdquo; said the AHL Belleville center. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve put up good numbers, but I&rsquo;ve worked towards it and I feel like I&rsquo;ve learned, and I got better as the year went on.&rdquo;</p><p>Norris had an outstanding rookie pro season, with 31 goals and 61 points in 56 games, leading AHL rookies in scoring and several other categories. He also made his NHL debut in February, earning a three-game call-up to Ottawa.</p><p>But what led to that success for a skilled forward who&rsquo;s trying to make his mark at the next level? For Belleville coach Troy Mann, it&rsquo;s a combination. &ldquo;Any time you talk about a young player and how they&rsquo;re going to develop, you have to talk about their attitude and coachability, and Josh came in with both in a positive manner,&rdquo; Mann said. &ldquo;His play without the puck has come along, and that&rsquo;s always going to be a factor in young players getting to the NHL.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/next_norris_0582/669755-1-eng-US/next_norris_0582.jpg" title="next_norris_058" width="692" height="795"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>JOSH NORRIS</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(PHOTO BY JASON SCOURSE)</span></figcaption></div><p>The native of Oxford, Mich., was acquired by Ottawa in the Erik Karlsson trade with San Jose in 2018 and has tried not to take on pressure from being part of such a high-profile deal. He boils down his keys to success to things young players are always told, such as &ldquo;have fun&rdquo; and &ldquo;listen to your coaches.&rdquo;</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s been a lot of fun with the success our team has had,&rdquo; Norris said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re so young, and I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s really supposed to be like this, for a pro team to have as many young guys as we do. But for me, just confidence and our coaching staff. Troy Mann has done a great job and put me in a lot of good spots to play, and I&rsquo;ve played with a lot of great players.&rdquo;</p><p>The progression of Norris has been noted by scouts and reflected in the annual Future Watch ranking of prospects. Since getting drafted 19th overall in 2017, he has risen in the top 100 from 57th in 2018 to 52nd last year and 37th this year. That&rsquo;s third on the Sens.</p><p>Mann says the off-season &ndash; whatever form it takes &ndash; will be huge in the development of Norris. &ldquo;Players in the NHL are bigger and stronger and ultimately you&rsquo;ve got to win battles,&rdquo; Mann said. &ldquo;If he comes in and has a great camp, he probably has an opportunity to crack the Sens&rsquo; lineup, but he&rsquo;ll need to get bigger and stronger to make the full transition.&rdquo;</p><p>Norris, 21, aims to make that happen by continuing to progress his game without getting comfortable with his early success. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think there&rsquo;s one thing,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s about continuing to do what I do and keep progressing. You don&rsquo;t want to get complacent, you just want to stay hungry. For me it&rsquo;s just about growing my confidence. It&rsquo;s hard to get to the NHL, and it&rsquo;s harder to stay there, so I&rsquo;ll try to keep improving my overall game and be ready whenever they need me.&rdquo;</p><div class="sidebar"><h2><b>DARN GOOD DEBUTS</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/next_oettin_0592/669734-1-eng-US/next_oettin_0592.jpg" title="next_oettin_059" width="468" height="615"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>JAKE OETTINGER</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(CHRISTIAN BONIN/TSGPHOTO.COM)</span></figcaption></div><p><i>These six AHL freshmen also opened eyes this season</i></p><h3><b>ALEX FORMENTON</b></h3><p><b>BELLEVILLE, LW</b><br><b>Drafted:</b> 47th overall, 2017 (OTT)<br>Formenton held the No. 2 spot in goals (27) and points (53) among AHL rookies, trailing teammate Josh Norris in both categories.</p><h3><b>OWEN TIPPETT</b></h3><p><b>SPRINGFIELD, RW</b><br><b>Drafted:</b> 10th overall, 2017 (FLA)<br>Despite only playing 46 games, Tippett led Springfield in scoring with 40 points and was selected for the All-Star Classic in January.</p><h3><b>EVAN BOUCHARD</b></h3><p><b>BAKERSFIELD, D</b><br><b>Drafted:</b> 10th overall, 2018 (EDM)<br>Bouchard was third in AHL rookie &lsquo;D&rsquo; points with 36 in 54 games and tied a team record for assists (29) by a D-man just before the season ended.</p><h3><b>BROGAN RAFFERTY</b></h3><p><b>UTICA, D</b><br><b>Signed:</b> Free agent, April 1, 2019 (VAN)<br>After three years at Quinnipiac, the undrafted 25-year-old led AHL rookie defensemen and sat third among all D-men with 45 points in first pro season.</p><h3><b>JAKE OETTINGER</b></h3><p><b>TEXAS, G</b><br><b>Drafted:</b> 26th overall, 2017 (DAL)<br>U.S. NTDP grad and Boston University standout led AHL rookies in save percentage with .917 while seeing the third-most shots against.</p><h3><b>JACK STUDNICKA</b></h3><p><b>PROVIDENCE, C</b><br><b>Drafted:</b> 53rd overall, 2017 (BOS)<br>A two-way threat, Studnicka led the Baby Bruins in goals, assists and points and ranked third among AHL freshman with 49 points in 60 games.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p></div>

next_norris_058

AHEAD OF THE LEARNING CURVE

<div class="byline">BY&#xA0;RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="Denisenko" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/denisenko/670499-1-eng-US/denisenko.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(RICH LAM/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>HOCKEY IQ</b></h2><p>&ldquo;Offensively it's very high.&nbsp;Defensively he has some details he needs to improve on. He can kill penalties, I&rsquo;ve seen him do it at the under-20 tournaments. He can get in lanes and has a good stick, but with the language barrier and coming over to North America for the first time, there will be a lot of new systems for him, and there will be a learning curve.&rdquo;</p><h2><b>COMPETE LEVEL</b></h2><p>&ldquo;I actually love his&nbsp;compete level and passion. He&rsquo;s a skilled player, but he can play the game any which way you want him to. I&rsquo;ve seen him in physical games and he&rsquo;s been a catalyst, going through bodies and winning puck battles. He does not shy away from physical plays. He&rsquo;s not huge by any standard (5-foot-11, 180 pounds), but he&rsquo;s strong on the puck, he has a great center of gravity and I&rsquo;ve seen him step up his game and punish people with open-ice hits. It&rsquo;s a great attribute and something you can&rsquo;t teach, that he&rsquo;s willing to do the dirty work.&rdquo;</p><h2><b>SHOT</b></h2><p>&ldquo;Very heavy, very accurate.&nbsp;Deadly on the power play, he can pick corners. He likes to shoot it, he likes to be the guy putting pucks to the net on the PP on the half-wall. His shot is going to be an asset moving forward.&rdquo;</p><h2><b>DEFENSE</b></h2><p>&ldquo;He has to learn&nbsp;to stop and start on pucks more often, especially on the smaller ice to take away lanes. He&rsquo;s the type of guy on the big ice that likes to keep his feet going, but on the smaller ice with less time and space he&rsquo;ll have to learn to stop and start on pucks more and work a little harder below his own blueline.&rdquo;</p><h2><b>PLAYMAKING</b></h2><p>&ldquo;He's got great vision.&nbsp;He thinks it on the offensive side very well. He&rsquo;s a guy that can make those seam plays on the power play with time and space. He&rsquo;s ahead of the curve with his vision and the ability to read where guys are going on the ice. I see him more as a shooter, but he does have a lot of playmaking ability and can make guys around him better.&rdquo;</p><h2><b>SKATING</b></h2><p>&ldquo;He's an elite skater,&nbsp;very dynamic. One of the few players I&rsquo;ve seen who skates faster when he has the puck on his stick. He&rsquo;s very powerful, dangerous through the neutral zone. He can carry with speed.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

Denisenko

SCOUTING REPORT: GRIGORI DENISENKO

<div class="byline">BY KEN CAMPBELL</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="lastword_le_022" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/lastword_le_0222/669862-1-eng-US/lastword_le_0222.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>BRENDAN LEIPSIC</b></p><p></p> <span class="photo-credit">(STEPHEN R. SYLVANIE-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>W</span>HEN THE </b>Washington Capitals voided the contract of Brendan Leipsic after his private misogynistic messages to friends surfaced on Instagram, they effectively condemned a journeyman player who hadn&rsquo;t scored a goal in four months and had been rendered redundant when the Capitals acquired 36-year-old Ilya Kovalchuk at the NHL trade deadline.</p><p>Shake a tree hard enough in the Canadian prairies and a couple guys with Leipsic&rsquo;s talent level drop to the ground. What would the Capitals have done, though, if it had been Alex Ovechkin or Nicklas Backstrom or John Carlson who were guilty of the same thing? Presumably, we&rsquo;ll never have to find out. The moral compass doesn&rsquo;t have to be beyond reproach to surpass a bar that low.</p><p>If you&rsquo;re a skeptic, you might think Leipsic was essentially kicked out of the NHL because of his lack of stature. Like it or not, the NHL and hockey have an image problem. As much as it tries to convince people that Hockey Is For Everyone, the game and its players provide some evidence to suggest otherwise. It tends to tar all players with the same brush, which is unfortunate because the vast majority of NHL players are good people with solid values. And those who aren&rsquo;t have been coached thoroughly enough to realize that what was once considered private boys-will-be-boys talk has the potential to find its way into the public domain and be judged by those outside the conversation.</p><p>And if the NHL was ever going to get lucky when it came to this disaster, Leipsic was a canary in a coalmine. You can bet that players, even on private chats, will be more cognizant of the language they&rsquo;re using and the people they&rsquo;re offending. And all it took for that sacrifice was a fringe player who was on his fifth NHL team in five seasons, making the NHL&rsquo;s minimum wage and on an expiring contract. He had also collected all but one paycheque for this season, and the dip in revenues caused by COVID-19 will likely mean he and all players will be donating that one back to the league anyway.</p><p>If they weren&rsquo;t already, it&rsquo;s fair to assume Leipsic&rsquo;s days as an NHL player are done. A player of his ilk being the sacrificial lamb is a lot like those <i>Star Trek</i> scenarios when Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Scotty would embark on a dangerous mission along with a security specialist in a red shirt. You can be pretty sure which one of them isn&rsquo;t coming back. Where the rubber will really hit the road, or perhaps will not because of Leipsic, is if a 40-goal scorer or a No. 1 defenseman is ever found to be guilty of the same kind of conduct. The same kind of behavior wasn&rsquo;t enough for Sean Avery to be banished from the NHL. In fact, after being suspended for his misogynistic tirade in 2008 with Dallas, Avery went on to rejoin the New York Rangers and basically cement his status as an anti-establishment cult hero.</p><p>And as far as truly putting its words into action, hockey has a lot of work to do. For example, where were the moral indignation and the talk of nullifying $58-million contracts last summer when Auston Matthews and his bros basically terrorized a female security guard at his condo in Scottsdale? Surely that could have nothing to do with the fact that at the time he was one of the league&rsquo;s superstars. He lost an opportunity to be captain of the team. Big whoop.</p><p>One agent told me after the Leipsic incident, &ldquo;There are a lot of NHL players who are saying today, &lsquo;There but by the grace of God go I.&rsquo;&rdquo; If other hockey people echo that sentiment, that indicates there is a bigger issue at play here. Is it indicative of an underlying culture that permeates hockey and is characteristic of a game that has typically been played by rich white kids whose exposure to social diversity has been limited? It&rsquo;s certainly possible. And even if that&rsquo;s not the case, this might be an instance where perception matters just as much, or more, than reality.</p><p>So as a sport and an industry, perhaps this is what people like to call a teachable moment. And it has nothing to do with instructing players to cover their tracks, even when they&rsquo;re conducting what they think are private conversations in safe settings. In this day and age, the minimum expectation is to not make yourself look like a buffoon. It does go deeper than this. Perhaps other players will look at Leipsic&rsquo;s messages and realize how damaging they were. And that it&rsquo;s just not right to even think that way. Maybe players will take stock of their attitudes and use it as an opportunity to reshape them. When you have to think about your words and their impact, it sometimes creates a sense of empathy that can last a lot longer than that moment in time. If you&rsquo;re made to see how ridiculous you sound, there&rsquo;s a much better chance you&rsquo;re going to make yourself stop sounding that way.</p><p>There may have been a time when this kind of talk was tolerated. That time has passed. And there was a time when it was commonplace to use that kind of language among close friends. Again, it doesn&rsquo;t cut it anymore. The culture shift has to start at the grassroots level to make it unacceptable to use that kind of language in any venue. That way, by the time those select few players are in the best league in the world, it won&rsquo;t be part of their thought process.</p><p>And the hockey establishment has to do its part, too, just as the Capitals did with Leipsic. Other teams will have to do the same if a star player makes the decision infinitely more difficult. Results so far are, as they say, middling.</p><span class="image-inline"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/twitterlogo_02110/669869-1-eng-US/twitterlogo_0212.jpg" title="twitterlogo_021" width="42" height="34"></span><p><b><a datastyle href="https://twitter.com/THNKENCAMPBELL">@THNKENCAMPBELL</a></b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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